Health Care
Health care is a basic human right. America’s labor movement has worked for more than a century for guaranteed high-quality health care for everyone. The Affordable Care Act is a historic milestone on this journey, but we still have a long way to go.
America must continue moving forward toward a more equitable and cost-effective health care system. Moving forward means working with employers to demand health care payment and delivery reforms to control costs, allowing people of all ages to buy into the equivalent of Medicare through a public plan option and allowing Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices. Of course, the most cost-effective and equitable way to provide quality health care is through the social insurance model (“Medicare for All”), as other industrialized countries have shown.
The worst thing we could do is move backward by repealing the Affordable Care Act or its key provisions; privatizing Medicare or turning it into a voucher program; raising the Medicare eligibility age; increasing Medicare co-pays and deductibles or otherwise cutting Medicare benefits; or taxing employment-based health care benefits.
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From the New York State AFL-CIO: New York is Union Strong because we are united. We share common values and interests, and we care about each other. One of the most important ways we can grow stronger as a movement is to talk with one another.
After seven
The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), announced last night that, by an overwhelming vote of 88% in favor of the union, workers at the Barnes & Noble Park Slope, Brooklyn store have voted to join the RWDSU.
Nearly $80 million in federal funds earmarked for the Staten Island Ferry that was at risk of being rescinded has been maintained in the recent debt ceiling deal. On Wednesday, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer visited the St.
Statement from AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler and Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond on the Supreme Court’s ruling in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. University of North Carolina:
On Wednesday, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters walked away from the national bargaining table and officially demanded UPS exchange its last, best, and final offer no later than today, June 30.
Sixty IBEW Local 3 members at WESCO Liberty Electrical & Elevator Supply in Woodside, Queens and WESCO in Hauppauge, Long Island went out on strike Monday after WESCO failed to offer a fair contract to members.
Fifteen years after ProPublica published its first investigation, employees of the award-winning, nonprofit investigative newsroom announced this week they are forming a union, the ProPublica Guild.
Early Thursday morning, dozens of LaGuardia Airport ramp and cabin workers walked off the job in a dramatic escalation of a years-long struggle for fair wages and safe working conditions.
Apple is once again in trouble for its union-busting practices, with a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) judge ruling that Apple interfered with employees' efforts to organize with the Communications Workers of America at its World Trade Center store here in New York City.