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:
Workers at HarperCollins Publishers entered 2023 still on strike, more than 40 days after about 250 employees at the publishing giant walked out when contract negotiations broke down in November.
NYSNA nurses have announced the outcome of strike authorization votes at NYC private sector hospitals with union contracts expiring Dec. 31.
In 2022, we’ve seen workers here and around the country rise up to take back their own power, demanding better pay, improved working conditions, and a voice in their workplace.
Actors’ Equity Association members have ratified a new three-year agreement with The Broadway League. The Production Contract: Broadway and Sit-Downs governs employment in shows on Broadway, as well as in sit-down shows produced by members of the Broadway League elsewhere in the United States.
"We’ve had, I think, a really strong financial performance for 2022. Revenue was significantly higher for 2022 than it was last year. We will be more profitable this year." These are the words of Bustle Digital Group’s CEO, Bryan Goldberg, in an internal podcast released on October 17.
1700 part-time faculty members at The New School (members of UAW Local 7902) have a tentative agreement and are back at work following their strike, the longest adjunct strike in U.S. history. Workers won:
Workers at the Starbucks Reserve Roastery flagship on Manhattan’s 9th Avenue ended a seven-week strike and returned to work on Monday, after securing an agreement that commits the coffee chain to regularly scrub equipment at outposts nationwide.
After 20 months of negotiations, members of the New York Times Guild walked out yesterday due to the company’s failure to bargain in good faith and reach a fair contract agreement with the workers.
The workers of OnPoint NYC this week announced their intent to organize a union and be represented by the New England Joint Board of UNITE HERE.
1700 part-time faculty members at The New School, members of UAW Local 7902, are still on strike demanding a contract that provides real raises, expanded health coverage, greater job security, more input into curricula, and real recourse against harassment and discrimination.