Fighting for Health Care for All in the Age of Trump
10 Things Unions Need to Look Out for When Bargaining Under Obamacare
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been the law of the land since 2010. Although its key Medicaid provision has been significantly weakened by the 2013 Supreme Court decision and it remains a target for attract and disruption by the right wing, it is clearly here to stay. The ACA is a very complex piece of legislation with a number of moving parts. (download our briefing paper)
Archive | July, 2014
Please Sign the Open Letter to the AFL-CIO
As the AFL-CIO prepares for its quadrennial convention September 8-11 in Los Angeles, a number of unions have gone public to expose the new stresses that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) places on their ability to negotiate decent healthcare for their members and retirees. This is particularly true for union-supported Taft Hartley Funds, long the healthcare gold standard for working Americans.
Read More...Open Letter to the AFL-CIO from Concerned Trade Unionists
We want to thank everyone who signed the open letter to the AFL-CIO from concerned trade unionists about the Affordable Care Act. You can read the list of signers below. A copy was sent to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and it is being distributed at this week’s AFL-CIO Convention.
Read More...At the AFL-CIO Convention: Finish the Job!
Calling on the labor movement to “Finish the job! Make healthcare a human right!,” activists from the Labor Campaign for Single Payer, Labor United for Universal Healthcare and the Campaign for Healthy California were all over last week’s AFL-CIO Convention. They distributed copies of the Open Letter to the AFL-CIO, signed by over 600 union leaders and activists and attended workshops and spoke from the convention floor.
Read More...Watch Out: the ACA is Coming! Briefing Paper Now Available
Our Briefing Paper, 10 Things Unions Need to Look Out for When Bargaining Under Obamacare has just been released. The paper examines ten threats to union-negotiated health benefits under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). It elaborates on the concerns expressed in Resolution 54 passed at this year’s AFL-CIO Convention. While rejecting calls for an outright repeal of Obamacare as […]
Read More...Bernie Sanders Introduces Single-Payer Bill in U.S. Senate
On December 9 Senator Bernie Sanders (I., VT) introduced legislation in the U.S. Senate to provide healthcare to everyone in America through a single-payer, Medicare-for-All system.
Read More...After the State of the Union: Make Healthcare Justice Part of the “Year of Action”
Supporters of the social insurance model breathed a sigh of relief when President Obama failed to include any reference to a “grand bargain” in his January 27 State of the Union address. “This is a huge shift that comes as a direct result of Americans of all political stripes calling for Social Security benefits to […]
Read More...New York Labor Gets Behind Single-Payer
The Gottfried-Perkins Bill got a shot in the arm on February 17 when two large statewide unions-1199 SEIU and CWA District 1–and the Working Families Party announced their support on February 17. “The passage of Obamacare represented a huge advance in this country,” said CWA District 1 Political Director Bob Master, “but it is not enough.”
Read More...At Labor Notes: Organizing Our Way Out of “Labor’s Healthcare Muddle”
When activists from UNITEHERE—the union of hospitality industry workers—were recently lobbying in Washington DC in an effort to get relief from some of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that are undermining the hard won healthcare coverage of the union’s mostly low-wage membership, they were told by an aide to New Jersey Senator Menendez that, “Labor needs to regress to the mean.”
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