Call center workers who handle health insurance issues for Americans are on a one-day strike at facilities in Mississippi and Louisiana.

Employees at call centers in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and Bogaloosa, Louisiana, are employed by Maximus Inc., one of the largest federal call center contractors in the United States, sun herald report. Employees there went on strike for the first time on Wednesday, demanding paid sick leave, competitive wages and better health insurance, the newspaper reported.

“These workers are helping American citizens get affordable health care every day, and their health care plans are really unaffordable,” said Victoria Miller, an organizer of the Communications Workers Union of America, which organized the strike. “Maximus workers do complex jobs…they deserve a middle-class living wage.”

Workers also said Maximus was trying to undermine workers’ efforts to unionize.

Virginia-based Maximus said it respects the right of employees to try to organize. The company said in a statement that it increased compensation and compensation and improved health care benefits within the limits of federal law, WDAM-TV report.

The company has also been critical of federal law, which it says limits wages and benefits provided by federal contractors.

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The company said Maximus “has increased health care benefits within the limits of the level of available funding under the terms of the service contract agreements in which we operate.” “Maximus has also pushed to modernize the Service Contracts Act, which was last updated in 1976 and limited wages and benefits provided by federal contractors.”

The two call centers are among the company’s largest, according to a statement from the company representing the workers. About 10,000 Maximus agents work in 11 call centers in nine states, the statement said.

The strike is scheduled for March 23, as that is the anniversary of the Affordable Care Act. Call center workers are contracted for Medicare and Medicaid services.