How Unions Are Revolutionizing Health Care | Mary Fogarty on Labor-Owned Primary Care
Interview Summary: Mary Fogarty – Solidaritus Health
In this episode of the Union Labor Advisory Network podcast, host Mike Fina sits down with Mary Fogerty, National Taft-Hartley Liaison at SolidaritUS Health, to explore how union values, lived experience, and labor-led innovation are reshaping health care for working families.
Union roots and why it matters
Mary shares how growing up in a union household—her father an Ironworker—made union life feel “normal,” until she realized how powerful it truly is. She emphasizes unions as a pathway to the middle class: providing fair wages, strong benefits, retirement security, and training that creates real mobility and long-term opportunity. She also highlights how today’s apprenticeships can connect to higher education—showing it’s no longer “college or trades,” but often both.
A personal calling: behavioral health and recovery
Mary explains that her decades-long commitment to behavioral health is deeply personal. After finding sobriety early in life, she dedicated her career to helping union members and families navigate addiction, mental health, and wellness challenges—especially within the building trades, where physical wear-and-tear and jobsite stress can increase risk. She notes how the trades have become leaders in peer support, member assistance, and reducing stigma—helping members stay healthy, stay working, and stay connected to their families.
What Solidaritus Health is building: labor-owned advanced primary care
Mary then breaks down what makes Solidaritus different:Labor-owned and labor-governed (no private equity influence)Designed to help Taft-Hartley and self-funded health & welfare funds control costs while improving outcomesBuilt around advanced primary care—with smaller patient panels (around 1,300 per doctor), allowing time, access, and continuityShe explains the model’s impact in plain terms: when members can get same/next-day care, urgent issues don’t become ER visits—and preventive care catches problems early (heart disease, diabetes, cancer screenings, kidney issues), saving lives and protecting long-term fund stability.
Better access, less friction for members A key takeaway: members don’t need to change insurance, and the model is structured to remove common barriers:
-
No copays
-
Per-member-per-month structure
-
Same/next-day appointments
-
24/7 virtual access
-
Ability to receive many services normally pushed to urgent care/ER
-
Coalition-based approach that supports members across regions (so someone working in Queens but living in Suffolk can still access care)
-
Pride, ownership, and a legacy for union families
-
Mary ties it back to something unions understand deeply: ownership and legacy.
These centers are built union, supported union, and designed for union families—something members can point to with pride and say, “We built this. This is ours.” She describes the long-term vision as a true shift: a future where union kids and grandkids don’t even recognize the old “health care crisis” experience—long waits, rushed visits, confusing systems—because better care becomes the norm.
Unions Are Revolutionizing Health Care
Advice for the next generation Mary’s message to young union members is simple and strong:
-
Show up
-
Learn from the journeymen and mentors
-
Go to meetings
-
Understand what it means to be union
-
Support other workers (don’t cross picket lines, stand with organizing drives)
-
Protect what earlier generations fought for
To learn more about labor-owned advanced primary care and how it can support union members and families, visit Solidaritus Health www.solidaritus.com and connect with Mary Fogerty on LinkedIn. And as always—follow, like, and subscribe to the ULA Network as we continue supporting, educating, and promoting union labor—one story at a time.
The ULA Network would like to thank our sponsors and supporters for believing in our mission to support educate and promote our union labor family and our communities. To learn more visit: https://www.ulanetwork.com/supporters
