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:

Mar 4, 2022 | News Story

On Wednesday, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), announced that by an overwhelming majority vote of 86 percent, workers at the REI Co-Op in Manhattan have voted to join the RWDSU, making REI SoHo the first unionized REI store in the nation.

Mar 4, 2022 | News Story

The Gizmodo Media Group (GMG) Union, representing newsroom workers at Jezebel, The Root, Lifehacker, Kotaku, Jalopnik and Gizmodo organized with the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), took collective action this week by going on strike after the union’s second contract expired at 11:59PM on M

Mar 4, 2022 | News Story

The National Labor Relations Board yesterday announced that, in a 404-88 blowout vote, New York Times tech workers have won their election for a union, after a year-long campaign that was met with aggressive union-busting tactics from management. 85% of the unit voted in the election.

Mar 4, 2022 | News Story

The Broadcast Workers (members of IATSE Local 794 here in New York) who bring local FOX news coverage to the New York and Washington DC metro areas continue to fight to end their decade-long wage freeze and negotiate a fair agreement.

Feb 25, 2022 | News Story

On Wednesday, the New York City Council Committee on Civil Service and Labor held its first hearing of 2022, with a focus on how the City can take preventative measures including, but not limited not to enhancing worker protection requirements in City contracts, effective policy mechanisms to com

Feb 25, 2022 | News Story

The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) this week filed Unfair Labor Practice charges (ULPs) against Amazon claiming that it has engaged in misconduct during the re-run union election in Bessemer, Alabama.

Feb 18, 2022 | News Story

Management of REI SoHo has not only ignored workers' requests to have their union voluntarily recognized, they’ve deployed textbook union-busting tactics meant to intimidate and scare workers out of voting Union Yes.

Feb 18, 2022 | News Story

Nail salon technicians experience harrowing conditions on the job: labor rights violations at their workplace, wage theft, health and safety concerns which have worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Feb 11, 2022 | News Story

The New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH) this week released its annual construction fatality report, “Deadly Skyline: An Annual Report on Construction Fatalities in New York State.” The report, which analyzed newly available data from 2020, found that the construction in

Feb 11, 2022 | News Story

On Thursday, five downstate New York Starbucks shops in four locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Long Island filed for union recognition with Workers United NY/NJ Regional Joint Board, an SEIU affiliate, bringing the total number of Starbucks union petitions filed nationally to 72 across 21 sta