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:
The Broadway Presbyterian Church was packed on Wednesday morning as GWC-UAW Local 2110, the union of Columbia University’s graduate workers and teaching assistants, held a forum about their campaign.
On Thursday, organized labor in digital media counted a major victory.
Two weeks ago, long-time Teamster Local 813 member Eber Garcia Vasquez was deported. The Teamsters are continuing to work with his attorney and advocates to expedite his Green Card application so he can return to the U.S. and be reunited with his family.
This November, New Yorkers will be asked whether or not to hold a Convention to amend our state’s constitution. Important labor protections like collective bargaining, prevailing wage, workers' compensation, and public pensions would be on the chopping block.
Join your allies in the NYC Labor Movement to knock on doors and educate you fellow members about the need to VOTE NO on a Constitutional Convention.
A flyer is attached below.
Today is the day for NYC Labor to come together in solidarity with the 1,800 striking cable workers, march across the Brooklyn Bridge, and rally in Foley Square. The workers at Charter/Spectrum have been on strike for six months, and we are with them in their fight for a fair contract.
On this and every Labor Day, we honor the men and women who keep New York City up and running. We represent workers from all three sectors of the labor movement, all backgrounds, and all walks of life, and we all play an important role in helping to keep NYC a world class, union-made city.