Does Obamacare kill labor unions?

[Grummgug]

There's an interesting Forbes article about this that was posted yesterday:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapoth...are-scenarios/

Labor Unions: Obamacare Will 'Shatter' Our Health Benefits, Cause 'Nightmare Scenarios'

Labor unions are among the key institutions responsible for the passage of Obamacare. They spent tons of money electing Democrats to Congress in 2006 and 2008, and fought hard to push the health law through the legislature in 2009 and 2010. But now, unions are waking up to the fact that Obamacare is heavily disruptive to the health benefits of their members.

The union leaders are concerned that Obamacare’s employer mandate incentivizes smaller companies to shift their workers to part-time status, because employers are not required to provide health coverage to part-time workers. “We have a problem,” they write, and “you need to fix it.”

“The unintended consequences of the ACA are severe,” they continue. “Perverse incentives are causing nightmare scenarios. First, the law creates an incentive for employers to keep employees’ work hours below 30 hours a week. Numerous employers have begun to cut workers’ hours to avoid this obligation, and many of them are doing so openly. The impact is two-fold: fewer hours means less pay while also losing our current health benefits.”

But the key problem is that the Taft-Hartley plans already provide generous and costly coverage; small employers now have a more financially attractive alternative, which is to drop coverage and put people on the exchanges, once the existing collective bargaining agreements are up. That gives workers less reason to join a union; a big part of why working people pay union dues is because unions play a big role in negotiating health benefits.

What a lot of people may not realize is that for much of our history, labor unions opposed universal coverage. “Unions…derive some advantage of good will, power, or profit from serving as a financial intermediary in health care,” writes Paul Starr in his Pulitzer Prize-winning history of the American health-care system, The Social Transformation of American Medicine.

Labor unions opposed FDR’s half-hearted attempt at universal coverage, and split on Truman’s related proposal. Unions were fine with Medicare and Medicaid, because health benefits for retirees and poor people weren’t as relevant to their interests. It wasn’t until the 1970s that the goals of progressives and labor unions became closely aligned on national health care.

I hadn't looked at the issue this way before but its really fascinating and I wonder what the thinking is behind all of this.

[Leonora]

Unions are 'killed' when they are
- made redundant because there are no issues to fight for, and/or
- made small due to very low number of members.

In my own country the original reason to make unions (terrible treatment of workers by their employers) seem to have dwindled, but they still have a place. Considering the passion expressed in the article above it does not sound as if they have been made redundant in your place yet, either .

[Naxere]

Good. They made their bed, now they have to lie in it.

[Nola Saint 504]

Got to pass it to find out what's in it. Guess we're finally finding out what's in it......

[Payday]

Hopefully

10char

[skrump]

The union leaders are concerned that Obamacare’s employer mandate incentivizes smaller companies to shift their workers to part-time status, because employers are not required to provide health coverage to part-time workers. “We have a problem,” they write, and “you need to fix it.”

The bolded/underlined portion is what is causing even massive companies such as walmart to adopt a policy of only hiring part time/ temporary employee's.
In short it is a clear cut way for a corporation to increase their profit margins by shitting on those who actually do all the real work to keep said companies afloat.

[Felya]

The bolded/underlined portion is what is causing even massive companies such as walmart to adopt a policy of only hiring part time/ temporary employee's.
In short it is a clear cut way for a corporation to increase their profit margins by shitting on those who actually do all the real work to keep said companies afloat.

Employers have not had to provide insurance for part time workers since Nixoncare began. This is nothing different. Your employer is already mandated to provide insurance, they don't do it out of good will. It's the same thing with independent contractors and how places like MS get away with hiring full time employees, but not paying insurance.

- - - Updated - - -

Got to pass it to find out what's in it. Guess we're finally finding out what's in it......

Not knowing what's in it and what is already in effect is what generates clicks for articles like this.

[Kujako]

Got to pass it to find out what's in it. Guess we're finally finding out what's in it......

Funny... I was able to read it a long time ago. Perhaps people in Congress should have done the same?

[Fugus]

Good. They made their bed, now they have to lie in it.

Thats funny when they didn't make it, no democrat or union member I know of wanted Obama Care, we looked at it and saw it for the steaming pile of shit it was and didn't want it either.

We wanted SINGLE payer healthcare which would have solved the issues, instead we got this compromised into useless bill that we turned down when the republican party proposed it in the 1990's.

Obama Care only has 1 good feature to it, that is it is so bad that it will force them to come out and either repeal it or finish the push to single payer. Which really isn't a good saving grace either.

They should have just gone and given us a single payer like pretty much every other first world nation has some equivalent of anyways, we have so many flavors to choose from just by looking around and get to see just how they effect us and pretty much all are better than what we have now or what we had before.

FYI, we actually have no democratic party anymore, what we call Democrat now would actually be called a right wing republican 20 years ago.

[Naxere]

Thats funny when they didn't make it, no democrat or union member I know of wanted Obama Care, we looked at it and saw it for the steaming pile of shit it was and didn't want it either.

Really? The AFL-CIO seems to disagree.

[Nadev]

How strange that all of the people who lobbied heaviest for its passage are the first ones to abandon ship.

What fucking awful legislature.

[Khoranth]

The ACA does not kill unions. The immigration bill, allowing companies to legally hire illegal imigrants full time and not give them anything, combined with the ACA requirements on full time American employees, kills not just unions, but will hurt alot of blue collar workers in general.

The Gov't is basically telling employers, fire all your Americans and legally hire illegal immigrants, or pay tons of cash to keep full time Americans working.

[Åmbulance]

How strange that all of the people who lobbied heaviest for its passage are the first ones to abandon ship.

What fucking awful legislature.

Ding fucking Ding!!

I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the whole thing falls apart in a year or so.

[Spartanics]

Isnt obama care getting pushed back? I heard there was some faults that needed to be fixed.

[want my Slimjim]

Because of Obamacare i'm now currently unemployed had a nice paying job and now i'm broke, and now depend on foodstamps while still trying to find a job thank you Obama just fucking thank you.

[GreatOak]

How can you kill that which is already dead?

[Åmbulance]

How can you kill that which is already dead?

Every time i see your name, i think of the ticket oak commercials..

Be my ticket oak?

[schwank05]

It would be great if it did dissolve Unions, at least then Obama-care would have done something good.

[Elegiac]

Because of Obamacare i'm now currently unemployed had a nice paying job and now i'm broke, and now depend on foodstamps while still trying to find a job thank you Obama just fucking thank you.

<infracted> spam image

[Puremallace]

Want to know why labor unions are dying in America? Yes it is the attacks from Republicans, but it is dumb shit like this making the normal guy not support them anymore. They used to support worker rights, but now they only give a shit about maintaining their union dues.