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:
DC 37 members voted overwhelmingly for a contract that provides for a total wage increase of 7.42 percent and preserves their premium-free health-care coverage with no givebacks. Members voted 31,133 in favor and 743 against the contract, an approval rating of 97.6 percent.
After months of talks that culminated in several marathon negotiating sessions and informational picketing that brought thousands of members into the streets, 1199SEIU and the League of Voluntary Hospitals and Homes of New York on July 13 settled a new three-year collective bargaining agreement.
The city Taxi & Limousine Commission is proposing a minimum wage for drivers, addressing rock-bottom wages among Uber and other for-hire operators, officials said this month.
After months of bargaining with almost no movement from management, healthcare workers at over 100 hospitals, nursing homes, and medical centers throughout greater New York held informational pickets yesterday to educate the public about healthcare facility bosses’ efforts to slash the training,
Yesterday, Verizon workers represented by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) announced a tentative agreement on a four year extension of the current contract, which was set to expire in August 2019.
Moderators and panelists include:
Vincent Alvarez, President, NYC Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO
For almost 20 years, the Union Semester program has supported dozens of activists in the labor movement, connecting passionate students with organizations who can benefit from their contributions.
Join the NYC Central Labor Council, the Murphy Institute at CUNY, and the Worker Institute at Cornell ILR for a series of six workshops focused on the fundamental skills and strategy necessary to strengthen our unions in this crucial moment.
Join the NYC Central Labor Council, the Murphy Institute at CUNY, and the Worker Institute at Cornell ILR for a series of six workshops focused on the fundamental skills and strategy necessary to strengthen our unions in this crucial moment.
Join the NYC Central Labor Council, the Murphy Institute at CUNY, and the Worker Institute at Cornell ILR for a series of six workshops focused on the fundamental skills and strategy necessary to strengthen our unions in this crucial moment.