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. 

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Jul 22, 2022 | News Story

The Atlantic’s business and technology teams announced the formation of a union Thursday, the latest sign of growing support for unions among both tech and administrative workers in the media industry.

Jul 22, 2022 | News Story

NYU Adjunct faculty members rallied for wage justice in Union Square Wednesday as their bargaining team gave NYU the union's initial wage demands proposal.

Jul 15, 2022 | News Story

The WIRED union, a unit of The NewsGuild of New York, which represents more than 55 workers at the technology magazine, reached an agreement on a first contract with management late Monday night.

Jul 15, 2022 | News Story

Last week, one of the Starbucks Workers United leaders who had recently led the successful unionization of his store in Astoria, Queens was unjustly fired by the company. This is the first firing of a union leader in downstate NY.

Jul 8, 2022 | News Story

Management has slow-walked WIRED Union's bargaining for over a year, refuses to discuss rights participation, and refuses to allow members of the Reviews team in the bargaining unit, in spite of their vital work for the outlet.

Jul 8, 2022 | News Story

Unionized employees of HarperCollins Publishers have voted by 99% to authorize a strike if the publisher does not agree to a fair contract. Local 2110 of the UAW represents 250+ employees in editorial, sales, publicity, design, legal, and marketing departments.

Jul 8, 2022 | News Story

Production workers at the long-running animated television shows The Simpsons, American Dad! and Family Guy have gained voluntary recognition from their parent company, 20th Television Animation, to join The Animation Guild. The production workers won with 90% support across all three shows.

Jul 8, 2022 | News Story

On July 10, 1896, 38-year-old Henry Miller, founder and president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, was the head lineworker for the Potomac Light & Power Company in Washington, DC.

Jul 1, 2022 | News Story

Statement by Liz Shuler, AFL-CIO President, June 24, 2022: