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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The Buzzfeed News Union voted unanimously on Friday to ratify their first union contract with the company. This past March, over 91% of the unit voted in favor of a strike amidst announcement of proposed cuts at the company.
The TIME Union announced plans for a one-day strike as their bargaining committee heads back into negotiations this week.
“The Carbon Free and Healthy Schools plan would be transformational: it would institute energy audits and retrofits of each school, repair and replace HVAC systems, invest in climate resiliency upgrades, and electrify our fleet of school buses," write NYC Councilmembers Carmen De La Rosa and Rita
Across the country, we are seeing a great resurgence in worker organizing. Workers are striking in record numbers and winning uphill battles against corporate giants.
North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) and Ørsted, the U.S. leader in offshore wind energy, announced a Project Labor Agreement (PLA) to construct the company’s U.S. offshore wind farms with an American union workforce.
Workers at the Starbucks in Caesar's Bay Shopping Center in Bath Beach, Brooklyn won their NLRB election unanimously with a result of 17-0.
Actors’ Equity Association has opened a grievance against the licensors of the musical Waitress for double-breasting – profiting from union and non-union workers at the same time.
More than 150 staff from the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA), other non-profit organizations, CWA Local 1180, politicians, and supporters joined together for a virtual Zoom rally in support of NDWA staff unable to secure a contract with management after an entire year.
New York City workers, labor leaders, elected officials, clergy and community members gathered yesterday at City Hall Park to mark Workers’ Memorial Day, honoring dozens of workers who have died or suffered illness or injuries while on the job in our City over the past year.
This week, UFCW Local 1500 members from Foragers Market announced that they have voted to ratify their inaugural contract, which runs for 2 years.