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:

Jan 19, 2024 | News Story

UAW Local 2325 has announced that a supermajority of staff from the New York-based Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund declared their intent to unionize.

Jan 19, 2024 | News Story

Musicians of the American Federation of Musicians of the U.S. & Canada (AFM) will begin bargaining with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) this month.

Dec 29, 2023 | News Story

Just after midnight on Thursday, a bargaining committee composed of 32BJ SEIU members who clean New York City commercial building offices, transportation hubs and universities and union officers reached a tentative agreement with the Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations.

Jan 12, 2024 | News Story

Condé Nast executives—who have sought to intimidate and surveil the company’s unionized workers since management announced layoff plans in November—are now facing further legal action from The NewsGuild of New York over unlawful bargaining tactics during Condé Union’s layoff negotiations.

Jan 12, 2024 | News Story

Last spring, a majority of contract faculty at NYU called on then President Hamilton to meet and work out a fair process by which the NYU administration would recognize their union, Contract Faculty United-UAW, and start to bargain.

Jan 12, 2024 | News Story

Musicians of the American Federation of Musicians of the U.S. & Canada (AFM) will begin bargaining with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) this month.

Jan 24

Wednesday, January 24, 10AM: What is a Recovery Ready Workplace (RRW)? In this forum, participants will be introduced to the Recovery Ready Workplace approach to preventing substance misuse and addiction and to supporting workers who are struggling.

Jan 5, 2024 | News Story

Workers at City World Ford in the Bronx are on strike! In July, the workers voted unanimously to unionize with UAW Local 259. Management has repeatedly ignored requests for information and dates to bargain, so the members voted unanimously to authorize a strike starting yesterday.

Jan 5, 2024 | News Story

New York’s minimum-wage workers had more than just the new year to celebrate Monday, with a pay bump kicking in as the clock ticked over to 2024.

Dec 26, 2023 | News Story

This year, the whole world watched as workers across New York City and across the country came together in an unprecedented wave of activism and solidarity.