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:

Jul 26, 2024 | News Story

Following a vote of its Executive Council, which represents 60 unions and 12.5 million workers, on Monday the AFL-CIO unanimously endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for President in

Jul 26, 2024 | News Story

NYC School Architects, Engineers, and Technical Professionals rallied with community leaders in front of School Construction Authority (SCA) headquarters in Long Island City on Thursday in an attempt to bring SCA back to the bargaining table as wages and benefits for 300-plus workers hang in the

Jul 26, 2024 | News Story

The actors who breathe life into the video games you love are facing an existential threat — and that’s why they've gone on strike effective at 12:01 this morning.

Jul 26, 2024 | News Story

CWA 1180-Bird Union members have been negotiating with Audubon for more than two years for their first union contract, while Audubon has dragged their feet and made attempts to weaken the union, including denying discretionary raises to CWA 1180-Bird Union members that were given to other staff.

Jul 26, 2024 | News Story

Actors’ Equity Association applauds the reintroduction of the bipartisan Performing Artist Tax Parity Act (PATPA), introduced by Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC).

Jul 19, 2024 | News Story

The Bronx Defenders Union Collective Bargaining Committee (BxD CBC) and Bronx Defenders management reached a tentative agreement on Wednesday night, averting a planned strike scheduled for this coming Monday.

Jul 19, 2024 | News Story

Members of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys (UAW Local 2325) who work at Catholic Migration Services (CMS) held lunch time pickets in front of the organization's offices in Brooklyn on July 9 and Queens on July 11 as part of their fight for a fair second contract.

Jul 19, 2024 | News Story

Unionized journalists at Lifehacker, Mashable, and PCMag–members of NewsGuild of New York who were prepared to walk out for the duration of Amazon’s July Prime Day Event, July 16 and 17–have reached a tentative three-year contract deal with parent company Ziff Davis that lifts guaranteed wages by

Jul 19, 2024 | News Story

Elected officials, advocates, members of Worker’s Justice Project, and Laborers Locals 79 and 1010 LiUNA conducted a multi-stop Road to Justice caravan on Wednesday, July 17th to confront employers who have refused to pay immigrant workers what they are owed.

Jul 24

After 2.5 years of bargaining, Audubon Management is still holding out on the final issues that workers need in our first contract. No, we will not allow management to work people unlimited hours a day or week. No, we will not allow union jobs to be replaced by non union workers.