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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New York City nurses' strike for safe staffing ended yesterday morning in historic victory as tentative deals were reached with both Montefiore Bronx and Mount Sinai Hospital. Nurses won concrete enforceable safe staffing ratios in both deals and went back to the job immediately.
As a worker organizing wave continues to sweep the country, Fordham University instructors are joining the ranks of educators and students challenging the status quo in higher education.
On Monday, twelve janitors at Twitter’s 245-249 West 17th St. location went public about their lives being upended after Twitter canceled its contract with their employer Flagship Services with no explanation.
"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.
NYSNA: After 3 days on strike for safe staffing, nurses at both hospitals to return to work on Thursday, Jan. 12, 2023.
“The entire New York City Labor Movement stands with our nurses, who are courageously taking action against dangerous understaffing that threatens the safety of their patients,” said New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO President Vincent Alvarez.
This week, NYSNA announced that nurses at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Maimonides Medical Center and Richmond University Medical Center have reached tentative agreements that include improvements in safe staffing and wages. Now nurses will vote on whether to ratify their new contracts.
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.