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:

Sep 15, 2023 | News Story

During the busy Saturday afternoon shopping rush, members of REI Union SoHo stopped work and walked off the job to protest REI’s decision to cut the wages of many members of the bargaining unit. ULP charges were filed regarding the wage cuts.

Sep 15, 2023 | News Story

Hundreds of union members from Long Island to Buffalo to Trenton answered the call on Thursday, as the NYS and NJ AFL-CIOs held a Union Strong Day of action in support of striking Writers Guild of America East and SAG-AFTRA members.

Sep 7, 2023 | News Story

By Vincent Alvarez, President, New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO

Sep 1, 2023 | News Story

As this "summer of strikes" gives way to autumn, we’re all by now familiar with the existential fight that our City’s striking writers and actors are facing.

Sep 1, 2023 | News Story

Last Friday, the National Labor Relations Board

Sep 1, 2023 | News Story

The AFL-CIO this week released new polling that reveals the American people’s support of unions — especially that of young workers — and their view of unions as critical to growing the middle class and providing opportunities for working people to thrive.

Sep 1, 2023 | News Story

On Wednesday, members of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) and supporters made it clear to American Airlines management that they are fired up, unified, and standing together for a contract with significant improvements to compensation, retirement, scheduling flexibility, a

Sep 1, 2023 | News Story

Visual Effects (VFX) crews at Walt Disney Pictures have filed with for an election to unionize with the backing of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) This marks only the second time in history VFX professionals have joined together to demand the same rights and prote

Sep 1, 2023 | News Story

IBEW Local 3 Business Manager Christopher Erikson recently penned an OpEd in amNY on how LinkNYC — the public-private partnership that deploys, operates, and maintains modern telecommunications infrastructure across the city — is providing union job opportunities for New Yorkers who have the driv

Sep 1, 2023 | News Story

In this blogcast, Burnes Center Senior Fellow Seth Harris spoke with Maida Rosenstein, the organizing director for UAW Local 2110, and three museum employees she worked with — Jordan Barnes, Karissa Francis, and Erika Wentworth.