We want our unions to endorse CalCare and become proactive members of CNA’s CalCare Coalition.

Since forming in 2022, we have garnered 50 members, 350 petition signers, and 1,200 Instagram followers. Thanks to our organizing, I.A.T.S.E. Locals 705 and 871 endorsed the 2024 CalCare bill, AB 2200, and the California IATSE Council (CIC) wrote a letter of support for it. We’ve run endorsement campaigns in the WGAW and IATSE Local 800, electing CalCare-supporting workers to serve in leadership positions in their unions. We’ve presented CalCare to union committees and advocacy groups. We’ve provided picket line support to striking writers and actors and protested Gavin Newsom at the California Democratic Party Convention. We’ve hosted booths at union rallies and marched on May Day.

We are grassroots organizers. Our goal is to educate as many Hollywood workers as possible to show our union leaders that their members demand action on CalCare. The California Nurses Association needs I.A.T.S.E. locals, SAG-AFTRA, the WGAW, the DGA, Teamsters Local 399, LiUNA! Local 724, and the AFM to shine a spotlight on CalCare.

There is precedent for this kind of support from our unions:

I.A.T.S.E. endorses 2025 Medicare for All and has been endorsing similar federal legislation since at least 2009.

I.A.T.S.E.'s 2024 Federal Agenda states support for single-payer health care:

"We must make quality health care a basic right in the United States. Our longstanding goal for achieving this is to move expeditiously toward a single-payer system that provides universal coverage, without diminishing the hard-fought benefits union members have won for themselves and all working people."

Los Angeles I.A.T.S.E. Locals 33, 44, 80, 705, 871, & 892 were organizing members of the Labor United for Universal Healthcare coalition, endorsing the California Nurses Association's 2017 single-payer health care bill SB 562: https://laborforhealthcare.org/about/affiliates/

Actor's Equity

Actors’ Equity Association, the national labor union representing more than 51,000 professional actors and stage managers in live theatre, issued a statement in May 2023 in response to Rep. Pramila Jayapal's federal Medicare for All bill:

“Equity wholeheartedly supports a national single-payer system for health insurance in the United States,” said Al Vincent Jr., executive director of Actors’ Equity Association. “Currently, our members’ health insurance is linked to how many weeks they have union employment throughout the year, a system that failed almost everybody during the industry shutdown of 2020. We need the government to recognize that healthcare is a human right. We once again urge Congress to take this matter seriously.”  

Writers Guild of America West

The WGAW has submitted official letters of support to the California legislature on behalf of health care legislation:

- AB 3087 The California Health Care Price Relief Act - Kalra, 2018

- AB 1130 Bill to Establish the Office of Health Care Affordability within the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development - Wood, 2021

These letters of support demonstrate WGAW leadership’s vested interest in California’s health care policy and commitment to fighting the skyrocketing costs and disparities of our current for-profit health insurance system.

In 2018, WGAW President David Goodman, VP Marjorie David, and Secretary-Treasurer Aaron Mendelsohn wrote in support of AB 3087:

"Over the years, in the face of rising health care costs, our members have foregone full wage increases to ensure that their health benefits are maintained, and our health plan has imposed reasonable cost containment strategies. However, costs for our plan continue to rise, reflecting health care inflation that is driven primarily by the suppliers of health care. We are not alone in experiencing this strain; in California, premiums for employer sponsored health insurance increased 234% from 2002-2016, and 83% of premium increases in the fully-insured large group market in 2017 was due to price inflation.

Health care spending in the United States far outpaces other industrialized countries - we spend twice as much when compared with our peer nations. The U.S. has the highest prices for common drugs, office visits and medical procedures. For instance, an MRI in the United States has an average price of $1,119 compared with $130 in Spain, and a hospital stay costs an average of $5,220 in the U.S. compared with $765 in Australia. Despite this higher spending, Americans have a below-average supply and utilization of doctors and hospitals compared to our industrialized peers, and experience worse health outcomes, including shorter life expectancy and greater prevalence of chronic conditions."

Hollywood union leaders know that our health plan costs are just going to continue rising, but our strongest negotiators are powerless against the trillion-dollar insurance companies that dictate pricing. This year we have seen Hollywood workers rise up and fight back against corporate greed. And we've achieved more than we initially believed possible. But every contract negotiation cycle comes with new challenges, and as long as health care is tied to employment health insurance will remain on the bargaining table. 

To our union leaders:

It’s time we caught up with the rest of the industrialized world and guaranteed affordable and accessible health care to all California residents. We can remove health care as a bargaining chip for the AMPTP. We can ensure that union members who get sick or need to take time off from work will not be in jeopardy of losing their health care. We can avoid ever having to make another GoFundMe page for a coworker injured in an accident or diagnosed with cancer. We can make health care a human right in California by passing CalCare.