By Bob Hennelly with Joe Maniscalco

Take a hard look around at some of the most incendiary labor struggles taking place in the nation right now — rail workers fighting the bosses over sick days; the demise of the Expanded Child Tax Credit; public sector workers watching their hard-fought contract gains vanish before their eyes — look closer and you’ll find the prohibitively high cost of healthcare is never far from the mix.

On this week’s edition of Stuck Nation Radio we connect the dots and follow the tracks that all lead to the same conclusion: This has got to change.

Block A:  Albany lawmakers move to uplift working families  let down by Congress’s failure to renew the Expanded Child Tax Credit that briefly lifted millions out of poverty as part of the American Rescue Plan. Under the proposal from New York State Senator Andrew Gounardes (D-Brooklyn).

It’s estimated that the NYS Working Family Tax Credit  will prompt a 13.4 % reduction in children under the age of 18 living in poverty, with almost a 20  19.6% reduction for those under 18 living in deep poverty. According to co-sponsor New York State Senator Jeremy Cooney (D-Rochester) while New York is one of the most financially prosperous  states in the nation,  six upstate cities rank in the top 10 for highest concentration of childhood poverty in the nation.  

Block B: Rail Workers Dec. 13 DC Rally Update from Matt Parker, a Union Pacific locomotive engineer with Railway Workers United and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. In addition to a protest on Capitol Hill, rail workers and their supporters will be protesting at locations around the country the imposition of a labor pact by President Biden and Congress that was rejected by workers because it lacked seven paid sick days. Parker outlines how over 40 Class One  railroads were permitted to dwindle down to just seven that are using their monopoly power to reap tens of billions in profits while shortchanging workers and the public.

Block C: An unprecedented 20% spike in health insurance premiums for New Jersey’s public workers has inspired an unlikely coalition of public unions and local governments to ask Trenton for $350 million  to help ameliorate the sticker shock for workers, their employers and taxpayers. Fran Ehret, the Executive Director of CWA NJ, representing  70,000 public workers tells us that in addition to the aid, the public must have more price transparency from the state’s hospitals. Without action, the state’s unions warn the current exodus from public employment will only accelerate. 

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