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:

Jan 14, 2022 | News Story

After ten long weeks on strike, in what became the largest labor action in the country, student workers at Columbia University have reached a tentative contract

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In a long-awaited decision, the National Labor Relations Board this week ruled that New York Times tech workers can hold a vote on unionization starting later this month as one united bargaining unit.

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The Staten Island Ferry workers union that has gone over a decade without a new contract or wage increase is cautiously optimistic that New York City’s new mayor will prioritize resolving the longstanding stalemate.

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This week, the majority of animation workers at Harriet the Spy and Superjail! studio Titmouse who are based in New York signed union cards to be represented by The Animation Guild, IATSE Local 839, and Titmouse managemen

Jan 14, 2022 | News Story

On Monday, workers at New York City’s Jewish Museum including curators, art handlers, educators, and other employees petitioned the NLRB for a union election, seeking to join UAW Local 2110.

Jan 14, 2022 | News Story

Workers at the Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, will have their voices heard in a second union election in February after the corporation broke the law during the original vote last year.

Jan 14, 2022 | News Story

On Wednesday, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, joined by NY Governor Kathy Hochul, NJ Governor Phil Murphy, and AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler annou

Jan 7, 2022 | News Story

The Association of Legal Aid Attorneys/UAW Local 2325 held a virtual rally on Wednesday to demand the New York State Office of Court Administration and Governor Hochul reinstitute virtual arraignments until the rates of COVID-19 positivity have subsided to lower levels.

Jan 3, 2022 | News Story

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Jan 15, 2021 | News Story

On Tuesday, during the second part of his State of the State address, Gov. Cuomo announced the first steps of what's being called a "New York Arts Revival," an effort to boost New York's $120 billion-a-year arts industry, which has been on lockdown for 10 months.