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:

Nov 18, 2022 | News Story

Broadway's Actors and Stage Managers took to the streets last night to rally for a fair contract from their employers. Actors' Equity Association has been at the bargaining table with The Broadway League since September.

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Unionized workers at Brooklyn Museum, members of UAW Local 2110, rallied in the wind and rain outside the museum's main entrance on Eastern Parkway on Tuesday to call attention to stalled contract negotiations.

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Pineapple Street Studios, the popular podcast network owned by Audacy, has formally recognized the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) as the collective bargaining representatives of the staff’s writers, producers, editors, engineers, and other storytellers.

Nov 18, 2022 | News Story

Several New York City labor unions affiliated with the Coalition for Affordable Hospitals held a speak out and rally on Thursday to tell NY Presbyterian and other wealthy hospitals to pay their fair share, after a

Nov 11, 2022 | News Story

In this week's elections, working New Yorkers made their voices heard, voting in support of candidates who will stand up for working families and engaging voters one on one through our NYC Labor Votes! Campaign and the efforts of our affiliate unions.

Nov 11, 2022 | News Story

The Union Veterans Council, an AFL-CIO Constituency Organization, brings working-class veterans together to speak out on the issues that impact us most, especially the need for good jobs and a strong, fully funded and staffed VA.

Nov 11, 2022 | News Story

Union members at HarperCollins, one of the largest publishers in the country, started an indefinite strike yesterday, with workers and supporters gathered outside the company's New York City offices to make their demands.

Nov 11, 2022 | News Story

"This is my dream job. But I will not risk getting infected with bed bugs or sick due to mold." said Kent, a baker at the NYC Roastery at a rally held by Roastery workers and their supporters at the location at 61 Ninth Avenue in Manhattan on Thursday.

Nov 11, 2022 | News Story

NewsGuild of New York members at Thomson Reuters have announced that a supermajority of union members voted in favor of authorizing their bargaining committee to call a strike if their employer continues bargaining in bad faith.