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. 

More about this issue:

Nov 16

Thursday, November 16: Red Cup Day is Starbucks’s biggest sales event of the season - and also one of the most infamously hard, understaffed days for the baristas that work them.

Nov 3, 2023 | News Story

A six-week wave of strikes that hobbled the three largest U.S. automakers has resulted in tentative contract agreements that, if ratified, will give autoworkers their biggest pay raises in decades.

Nov 3, 2023 | News Story

Unionized staff of the Brooklyn Museum, members of Local 2110 UAW, have set a strike deadline and will begin picketing the Museum on Wednesday, November 8 if no agreement on a contract is reached before that date.

Nov 3, 2023 | News Story

The Times Tech Guild – the largest union of tech workers with collective bargaining rights in the country – walked out Monday afternoon in protest of the New York Times’ flagrant disregard for their rights as union members.

Nov 3, 2023 | News Story

Following the devastation of Hurricane Ida, the community of Cambria Heights, Queens lost a local landmark on the corner of 222nd Street and 115th Avenue. The dual archways ornamenting the sidewalks of 222nd Street are beautiful public artwork that predates most of the homeowners on the block.

Nov 3, 2023 | News Story

Unionized workers at Scholastic – the children’s publishing powerhouse – walked off the job Wednesday in protest of the billion-dollar company’s refusal to pay its workers fair wages, specifically its rejection of the Scholastic Union’s proposal for annual raises.

Nov 3, 2023 | News Story

Workers at the Brooklyn Strategist, a popular board game cafe in Cobble Hill, demanded voluntary union recognition as the Brooklyn Strategist Workers Union, as part of Tabletop Workers United, on Wednesday by confronting owner Jon Freeman with a petition signed by more than 75% of workers.

Nov 3, 2023 | News Story

New York State is about to submit its plan to the Federal Government to spend nearly $1 BILLION on broadband deployment and we need to make sure our recommendations are included in the plan.

Nov 3, 2023 | News Story

It’s been nearly two years since the WGA East began negotiations with MSNBC, but they’re still fighting for a fair first contract. Thus far, MSNBC has refused to agree to fair wages or codify meaningful work-from-home flexibility for its workers.

Nov 3, 2023 | News Story

The General Election is Tuesday, November 7, and early voting is running through Sunday, November 5th!