Posted on 03/10/2014 8:55:42 AM PDT by Din Maker
A national union that represents 300,000 low-wage hospitality workers charges in a new report that Obamacare will slam wages, cut hours, limit access to health insurance and worsen the very “income equality” President Obama says he is campaigning to fix.
Unite Here warned that due to Obamacare's much higher costs for health insurance than what union workers currently pay, the result will be a pay cut of up to $5 an hour. "If employers follow the incentives in the law, they will push families onto the exchanges to buy coverage. This will force low-wage service industry employees to spend $2.00, $3.00 or even $5.00 an hour of their pay to buy similar coverage," said the union in a new report.
“Only in Washington could asking the bottom of the middle class to finance health care for the poorest families be seen as reducing inequality,” said the report from Unite Here. “Without smart fixes, the ACA threatens the middle class with higher premiums, loss of hours, and a shift to part-time work and less comprehensive coverage,” said the report, titled, “The Irony of Obamacare: Making Inequality Worse.”
Based on government and private reports, polling and statements from administration officials, the report, to be sent to pro-union members in Congress, charges that low-wage workers are taking the hit under Obamacare, while wealthy insurance companies fatten up on government subsidies.
Union head Donald "D." Taylor, in a note also being sent to Congress, demands changes and admits to being reluctant to bash a president his union supported.
“Believe me; I enter this entire debate about the consequences of the ACA with a deep reluctance,” he wrote. “Unite Here was the first union to endorse then-Senator Obama. We support the addition of health care to millions of Americans. Yet facts are facts, and Obamacare will cost our members the equivalent of a significant pay cut to keep their hard-won benefits.”
Taylor and other union leaders have criticized Obamacare before. His union's report was uploaded by Ralston Reports.
Unite Here's document charges that the administration is putting union health care into a "death spiral." It endorsed criticism that employers will move workers to part-time status to avoid the requirement that those working 30 hours or more a week be provided health insurance -- or else the company pays a penalty. And it says the Affordable Care Act will shift workers from union insurance to the more expensive Obamacare health exchanges, costing them up to half of their pay to cover premiums.
“The information addresses the very unfortunate irony of Obamacare,” Taylor said in his letter about the report. “Namely, that it will inevitably lead to the destruction of the health care plans we were promised we could keep. And, as a result, it will lead to greater income inequality for the very segment of the population Obamacare should want to help most.”
Taylor also suggested that Democrats in Washington are telling unions to stop griping about the impact of Obamacare on their members. He quoted a Senate aide saying, “Labor needs to regress to the mean.” Said Taylor: “In other words, roll back what you have and take one for the team. Ironic, given that Congress and the president carved out an exemption for staffers on the ACA. We cannot sit idly by as the politicians carve up our health plans while they carve out exceptions for themselves and every special interest feeding at the trough in Washington.”
The best way to get rid of a bad law is to fully implement it.
Eat your peas, union!
I wonder how it feels to be cannon fodder for the Left’s war on America?
Serves them right.
The health care coverage of Our High Lord & King President MomJeans is in NO danger!
Looks like these low wage people were happy enough with their sub-standard health plans. Cue the stark raving mad loony Ezekiel Emanuel to explain to them how Obama care is better for them.
*****Ezekiel Emanuel- who has seen this buffoon on TV? Its hilarious. This guy thinks he is a genius but he comes off as a loon just by his hyped up mannerisms
Useful Idiots.
Unions pushed for this horror... guess they thought they had a way out... and the rest of us would be stuck with it.
I remember in high school learning a theory called “malicious obedience”.
This could be a great opportunity.
Smart guy, huh?
“I wonder how it feels to be cannon fodder for the Left’s war on America?”
Well, at least we now know why Obama wants to raise the minimum wage. Union contracts tied to it will see their workers salaries increase, which will make up for the lost wages due to Obamacare.
If you like your $5 per hour wage cut, you can keep your $5 per hour wage cut. Keep the actual $5? Not so much.
More important, it will slash the standard of living for those below a certain skill set and value because those jobs will all be part time. These people will have to work at multiple part time jobs to pay their bills, those jobs will have no benefits and they will spend much more on commuting expensese.
Thanks libs! The secular utopia you promised to low information voters is almost here!
This was 100% predictable, and in fact was predicted, over and over again. But these dumchits took Obastard's slick word over ours, so here we are. The LIVs are dragging us down with them.
They are cutting all the low rungs off the ladder, they can see it, and they still call us liars for pointing it out. I wish there were a way of making them suffer without damaging all of us.
they’re just regressing to the mean...
The democrats lose the unions and this could make 1994 look pale in comparison to 2014 and 2016.
The LIVs thought that they were gonna get something for free. LIVs believed that "the rich" were gonna be made to pay!!!
Nothing else mattered after that, nothing more said was heard.
Believe me, this union will totally turn around if only they get an exemption.
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