New Challenges for Labor: Taking Healthcare Off the Bargaining Table

The elaborate system of employment based benefits, negotiated by the labor movement in the post-World War II period and expanded to nearly all workers in the first tier of the economy, is under severe stress. For nearly 30 years, medical benefit costs have consistently increased at rates far in excess of the CPI.  Employers have responded to these pressures by cutting benefits and shifting costs onto workers and retirees.  Public workers' healthcare benefits are increasingly vulnerable due to austerity politics and political demagogy. A weakened labor movement has been unsuccessful in preventing these attacks and dissuading employers' plans to transition from defined benefit to defined contribution healthcare benefits.  The Affordable Care Act does little to address these problems and, in many ways, actually makes it more difficult for unions to bargain adequate healthcare benefits for their members and their families.  In response, more and more unions are advocating a political solution that would take healthcare off the bargaining table and make it a right for everyone in America: single-payer Medicare for All.  Labor's embrace of this healthcare justice movement could be a game changer and should be a priority for all who are working for change.