History
A look back at JwJ's healthcare work
In June 1991, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) District One and the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU), a predecessor union to UNITE HERE, formally launched the New York Jobs with Justice Health Care Campaign as a vehicle for bringing together New York City-area labor organizations committed to the fight for a national single-payer universal health insurance program. The leadership of the two unions, CWA Vice President Jan Pierce and ILGWU President Jay Mazur, committed funds from their organizations and secured financial support from several other NYC-area unions enough to hire an executive director, Gene Carroll, who previously served as an organizer for the United Mine Workers of America.
What motivated the formation of the health care campaign was the fact that back then, just as it is now, the issue of health care benefits and their costs was the biggest issue on the bargaining table for workers who belong to unions. It was the key issue in 3 out of 4 strikes. Medicare costs were rising and retirees fears about losing their hard-earned savings to pay for long-term care was reaching a fever pitch. And in the early 1990s, some two million New Yorkers were without health insurance coverage.
The approach of New York Jobs with Justice was based on education and action, with special emphasis on helping labor unions develop internal organizing campaigns that rely on knowing how to talk to members one-on-one about the fight for universal health care.
By April 1993, JwJ had grown into a coalition of over two dozen labor organizations with a multi-faceted program of education, lobbying, public relations and grassroots mobilization. Working closely with groups like Citizen Action of New York, the New York State Health Care Campaign and the New York State Senior Action Council, the JwJ Health Care Campaign played a leading role in the passage of NYS Assemblyman Richard Gottfried's single-payer bill in the State Assembly in 1992 and winning co-sponsorship of the federal single-payer bill, the American Health Security Act, from 13 out of 14 New York City-area Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives.
By early 1993, the Administration of President Bill Clinton was moving toward announcement of its own proposals for fundamental reform of the nation's health care system. At the same time, NY JwJ and its member unions intensified their efforts for universal health insurance by collecting over 10% of the one million postcards advocating single-payer health insurance, which were delivered to President Clinton in March 1993. Representatives of NY JwJ met with the Administration's Health Care Task Force on a number of occasions and NY JwJ led the formation of a broad new coalition called the Metro New York Mobilization for Health Care to sharpen the attack against the health care special interests which stood in the way of fundamental reforms of the nation's health care system.
Following the introduction of President Clinton's health care proposal in September 1993, which was not a single-payer plan, NY Jobs with Justice and its member unions lobbied hard to influence the congressional debate with the goal of securing the adoption of core single-payer components in the final legislation that would be drafted by Congress. For example, to lay the groundwork for a publicly-financed national health insurance system, a financing mandate that would require all employers to pay into the system was deemed essential.
As we now know, citizens of the United States experienced one of the great social defeats in our nation's history when in August 1994, political support for the Clinton plan and whatever that was in it that was worth fight for collapsed. The more than $100 million spent then by the insurance industry to crush the drive for universal health care had prevailed.
Jobs with Justice
