HEALTH CARE FOR ALL

Health care is a fundamental right for all. All Americans have a right to equitable, affordable, accessible, culturally-competent, and comprehensive healthcare services in their own communities. Yet more than 30 million individuals lack health coverage altogether, even as millions of others are underinsured and the rapidly escalating costs of health care become increasingly unsustainable. In order to further universal health care coverage and access, and improve the health care delivery system, we support federal law, regulations and reforms that:

Fully invest in and increase access to insurance through thefederal Affordable Care Act as well as the essential Medicaid & Medicare programs while maintaining strong consumerprotections.
Engage the healthcare workforce in the implementationof delivery system reforms. Health care reform works bestif there is full investment by the workforce and when newtraining initiatives reflect a clear analysis of expected workflow changes and critical labor shortages.
Support the creation of a Medicare-for-all, Medicare buy-in,public option, or other federal programs guaranteeing affordable universal health care for all, while preserving fairreimbursement rates and access to doctors, hospitals, andquality health care services.

UNION RIGHTS & FAMILY-SUSTAINING JOBS

America’s economy and democracy are out of balance, with too much power in the hands of corporations, billionaires, and politicians who have rigged the system against working families,
expanded economic inequality and worsened the climate crisis. Building a stronger economy starts with family-sustaining jobs and increasing opportunities for workers to join labor unions and bargain for increased wages, better benefits, and improved working conditions. Organized labor plays an essential role in fixing the rigged economy, challenging the corporations that exploit our communities, and in the implementation of broad reforms like those included in the Green New Deal aimed at addressing climate change and economic inequality. We support federal policies and reforms that:

Ensure that all working people have a real opportunity to join unions across industriesand regions to improve work-ing conditions. Federal laws and labor regulations shouldexpand protections against employer retaliation for organizing workers while increasingfines and penalties against businesses that violate federal labor law.
Offer local and state governments the freedom to innovate and create new ways tosupport the right of working people to collectively bargain with employers, includingthrough the establishment of local fair wage standards.
Reduce the power and influence of corporations and oth-er employers using theirprivileged positions to keep wages low and to fight the reforms needed to create family-sustaining green jobs across the economy.

STRONG FAMILIES & COMMUNITIES

Problem: Family budgets are under strain from the high cost of child care and college tuition and the lack of paid family leave. Housing investments are skewed towards wealthy households as working people face displacement and homelessness. Too many communities are threatened by environmental disasters in the face of corporate greed and inaction on climate change.

We Believe: Strong families and communities lift up our country and make it better for generations to come.

Our Plan: We need to invest in our childcare and education systems, protect paid leave for workers, build more affordable housing, and invest in the sustainability of our communities.

SOCIAL & RACIAL JUSTICE

We support fair treatment and oppose all forms of discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender, disability, family status, or LGBTQ+ status. As a nation, we must seek to dismantle anti-Black and structural racism and achieve equality for all people. The failure to confront the legacy of slavery and structural racism have divided us against one another. Our next President and the federal government must:

Build more trust and transparency in our justice system,through the promotion of criminal justice reform that reduces racial disparities, embraces community policing, implements comprehensive sentencing reform, and that demilitarizes local law enforcement.
Ensure that our nation’s drug policies no longer arrest, incarcerate, disenfranchise and harm millions – particularly youngblack and brown people who historically have been disproportionately affected by the war on drugs.
Compensate black Americans for suffering under slaveryand other forms of racial injustice through a Federal reparations program.

SUSTAINABLE LONG-TERM CARE

Far too many American families struggle to ensure that their aging or disabled loved ones have the long-term services and supports they need. Federal and state governments must work together to find new sources of funding for long-term care, to invest in recruiting, training and retaining workers, and to establish stronger quality care standards. The next president must work to:

Enact a new Medicare personal care benefit that includesstrong provider qualification standards.
Rescind the 2019 CMS rule which bans home care workers andother Medicare providers from designating third-party contributions from their Medicaid payments.
Increase federal funding for long-term care worker trainingprovided by labor-management funds.
Establish enforceable minimum staff to resident ratios innursing homes.

IMMIGRATION REFORM

Problem: Our broken immigration system has forced too many to live in the shadows even as they contribute to our nation’s economy. Rather than work to make our system better, President Trump has launched a vicious assault on immigrant children and families.

We Believe: We are a nation of immigrants-some by choice and some by force. Immigrants and their families should feel welcomed, safe, and free in the United States.

Our Plan: We need to implement compassionate reforms designed to keep families together, expand opportunities for permanent legal immigration, and address the root causes of emigration.

WE CARE. WE VOTE.