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 19, 2021 | News Story

On Tuesday, the editorial employees comprising the Fortune Union walked off the job for one day to hold an informal press conference and rally to expose management's bad-faith in negotiations with the NewsGuild of New York, the worker’s bargaining representative, and to demand a fair, equitable c

Mar 19, 2021 | News Story

Actors' Equity Association has asked its members to talk to the union before agreeing to work for New York City's new "Open Culture" program.

Mar 19, 2021 | News Story

Local 802 members made several headlines this week.

Mar 12, 2021 | News Story

This week, Congress passed the American Rescue Plan Act, a $1.9 trillion bill to help fight the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mar 12, 2021 | News Story

The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, legislation which will make it possible for tens of millions of workers to exercise our freedom to freely and fairly form a union and bargain together.

Mar 12, 2021 | News Story

After two years of bargaining, graduate workers at Columbia University (GWC-UAW 2110) are set to go on strike on Monday, March 15th at 10am if the University does not agree to a fair contract. Last spring, 96% of student workers voted 96% yes to authorize a strike.

Mar 12, 2021 | News Story

On Wednesday, the CLC hosted our 2021 Labor and Civil Rights event, an annual opportunity to recognize and celebrate the continuing unity and interdependence of the labor and civil rights movements.

Mar 12, 2021 | News Story

Musicians marked a grim anniversary this week: it's been a year since the NYC music industry shut down, leaving most musicians without pay and benefits for the past 12 months, including the musicians of the Metropolitan Opera, New York Philharmonic, NYC Ballet, all of Broadway.

Mar 25

Join us on Thursday, March 25, 6pm as we commemorate the lives lost during the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911. #TriangleFire #WeRemember

Mar 5, 2021 | News Story

On Sunday, President Biden made perhaps the strongest public statement in support of the right of workers to organize that any American President has made in memory, denouncing