Big Labor’s Selfish Healthcare Motivation
by Brian JohnsonWith the health care debate raging and, what seems like, new bills being proposed everyday, it is easy to get bogged down in the details and corresponding rumors. One aspect of Democratic healthcare plan that will never change is whatever bill Democrats end up with, they intend to pay for it through taxes on so-called “Cadillac health care plans” (and several other tax increases).
While the “tax anything we can” rhetoric delights most on the Left, it doesn’t play so well with the party’s largest contributor and loyal ally, organized labor.
Unions have spent the past few decades bullying employers into giving them overly generous health care plans (think United Auto Workers) often to the detriment of the companies they work for. Unfortunately for labor, the healthcare plans they spent years negotiating are now considered “Cadillac plans” and are under attack by the same people they helped spent $450 million to put into office.
It is no real surprise that labor is up in arms over Democrats trying to tax their health care. Any powerful interest group would react the same way. Who wants to give money to the government? No one. People just want to give other people’s money away.
The irony is that labor’s rhetoric about the government taxing healthcare goes: “Taxing hard working Americans is unfair. The marginalized worker is being exploited by the man; they shouldn’t be forced to give money to the government in the form of healthcare taxes.” Yes, people shouldn’t be taxed because of the healthcare packages they choose.
But who is labor to talk? The hypocrisy in their argument is laughable. Workers should not have union dues taken from their paychecks before they even receive them, but they do. The right to vote using a secret ballot on unionization should be upheld, yet unions oppose this. Interesting how now unions are opposing the forced surrendering of money when they manifest as healthcare taxes.
Unions have survived, in large part, because they force people to pay union dues, much like a tax. Where do you think that $450 million in campaign contributions came from in ’08? Union dues. In states that do not have right-to-work laws, workers are forced to join a union if they want to work in certain industries. This means that workers have to join a union, whether they want to or not and subsequently are forced into paying union dues.
Labor complains about paying taxes to the government while pocketing union dues, in essence, an employment tax that gives workers the right to keep their job. Taxing hard working Americans is unfair, which is why people should not be forced to join a union.
The marginalized worker is being exploited, by unions, to further labor’s political agenda. Although unions have it right, health care shouldn’t be taxed, it is hard to take them seriously, as they have little credibility in the realm of free choice.
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39 Comments
Union dues= Extortion.
Big Unions' health plans are exempt from taxation, in some of the now proposed Congressional "plans".
The not so secret is, that those plans MUST be taxed, should ObamaCare be forced down our collective throats and then some.
The union protesting is bull. What they really want is that public option. Regardless of taxation of cadillac plans, the real end game is dumping all the union workers into the public plan. Then the unions can get out from under those pesky health insurance costs and just rotate the collection of dues and raising wages. No more icky benefit discussions at the bargaining table!
the unions getting taxed on their healthcare plans is justice for selling out America
dirtbags
OkPatriotMom, I think you are accurate in your analysis. And besides, healthcare costs are escalating at such a rate that even comparatively wealthy unions and their members can no longer meet those costs…Which brings to mind: just who are those additional 36 million people that Ms. Pelosis says will be covered? Identify them, please, Congress!
UNIONS?
They broke the railroads in the 70's.
They broke the steel industry in the 80's.
They broke the airline industry in the 90's.
They broke the auto industry in 2008-2009.
They will break the Health Care Industry in 2010.
When will people ever learn? Nothing is free. Freedom isn't even free.
If the unions really are up in arms (excuse me because I do not believe anything I see or hear, I mean really I don't); OK so if they are up in arms it just goes to show you that tyrannical regimes LIE to everyone. It was only a matter of time before they got targeted just like everyone else with taxable income that can be used to reward malingerers…
these orginization's must not be alowed to have anything to do with any kind of health care bill or programm ACORN/SEIU/ACLU/AFL-CIO/and all of the rest of the union's should be banned from any form of government office's and programm's they should be destroyed and compleatly wiped out of existance all that they do is drive up the cost of everything that they get envolved with and then the consumer end's up with the shitty end of the stick we must stop all form's of government funding for these orgizination's. ACORN is schedueled to be eligible for funding again saturday we the AMERICAN CITIZEN TAX PAYER'S must put a stop to all of this waistfull spending.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by greychampion and Jerry Lawrence, Smoky Mountain 912 -. Smoky Mountain 912 – said: Big Labor’s Selfish Healthcare Motivation: With the health care debate raging and, what seems like.. http://tinyurl.com/ylq64td -VOL360.com- [...]
Funny.
The last paragraph in the article states:
"The marginalized worker is being exploited, by unions, to further labor’s political agenda. Although unions have it right, health care shouldn’t be taxed, it is hard to take them seriously, as they have little credibility in the realm of free choice."
That last paragraph sums up precisely how we all came about being here, how Big Government came into existence. The marginalized worker is being exploited……………..
Sounds similar to the old Bertha Lewis crew, exploiting those nubile 13 year old El Salvadoran gals. We have come full circle with the exploitation
They broke the airline industry in the 90's.
As a former Pan Am and UAL employee, I strongly agree.
True and Union bosses have never given a damn about union members/employee;. it's just all about power, their power.
This whole Progressive, Liberal, Socialist thing is out of control. Did anybody believe things in America could degenerate so quickly? Every day there is a new revelation about another freedom lost. How do they keep pushing this crap when most people in America are opposed?
I Concur
If they get this health care bill through, there next target will be mandatory union enrollment for all health care workers. Then not only will we have to fight the Government for our healthcare, we will also need to fight the unions.
After they do that, what is the ONLY major industry left to Nationalize? The Oil and Gas Industry. If you think energy costs are high now, just wait until Nancy Pelosi, Barney frank and Maxine Waters are running Exxon.
Fox or Whitehouse – we report you decide
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2009/10/in_white_house_vs_fox_news_war.html
and you know what maxine waters thinks about that
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrA9zj94NuU
That's mine Congressmen Steve Cohen sitting next to her…. He's new so he is kissing that behind as hard as he can….
SEIU is a WHORE – (well the second meaing) – I called my wife a whore cause she shops a lot…. I told he it was in the second meaning …I still can't find my knee caps
has anyone noticed how many racists remarks have been thrown since Obama has been president? I mean the left is showing how truly hateful they are ….
Unions want to give away the healthcare of their workers by supporting single payer. I guess they'll do this in exchange for card check. They want more $$ in union dues that they'll get if card check goes through. The unions don't care about the workers they claim to represent, if they did they would never back single payer.
It's time to quit buying/using businesses with unions that abuse the constitution, such as the SEIU whores. The unions ruined America's car makers and now they are ruining the whole d— country!!!! There was a time that unions were worthwhile….but for the last 50 years they have gone totally overboard. I have seen too many jobs leave this country ABSOLUTELY because of the unions, including my own job. An example…………
I'll give you an example. There was a maintenance electirician that was told by the supr to change a 4 ft lamp in a fixture hanging from a 15 foot ceiling. The guy had been badly injured in a motorcycle accident years before, but his knee gave him a lot of trouble. So he asked a mechanic standing near-by if he would hand him the lamp after he got up the ladder. Sure, no problem. The lamp was changed and the burned out lamp handed down to the mechanic. The electrician came down and went directly to his union steward and submitted a complaint because A MECHANIC DID AN ELECTRICIAN'S WORK. To make a long story short, because the other electricians were busy at the time, the next person on the seniority list had to be paid for a 4-hour call-in (at time and a half). And this kind of bullcrap went on all the time, until the company got tired of it!!!!
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The Congressional Budget Office said Thursday a U.S. House health-care system re-write would extend health insurance to 96% of the nonelderly U.S. population by 2019, and spend $1.055 trillion to do so.
———————————————————————————————————–
This CBO report is on drudge. Does this mean that the CBO is not counting the elderly in on the final cost? It just seems funny the way they wrote it? We still have to pay to cover them right? Thought maybe someone could help me out here.
The sun is hot, the sky is blue, water is wet and unions suck
Union Worker…oxymoron….
Where is Clinton in this debate:
http://americaspeaksink.com/2009/10/bring-back-th...
in 1974 when I was forced to join the Teamsters in Chicago, because our food plant had a vote and they were voted in, we never received any better pay or benefits than what we previously had from our company…..but they still took union dues…..and forced all workers to reduce their productivity with this moto — "we work slow, or slower"…..union stewards would always remind managemnt of this after everyone received their narrow scope job descriptions….and management was forced to frequently sit in on grievances……
our factory was closed 4 years later in 1978….everyone was out of a job. Sounds like dejavu all over again Yogi.
The union workers will be penalized for having the 'cadillac' plans UNLESS………………union workers are given an exemption.
What do you wanna bet it happens?
Anyone watch hannity last night and see how that one lady "katie" i think, wants government to tell her how much she can make….
I truly feel sorry if she has any kids ..
Work hard daughter but you know you can only make $80,000…. so don't work too hard….
SEIU are "legal thugs/gang members!' I am a former SEIU member of over 20 YEARS. At first when they gain control of an employer, the are "tough on the employer." After awhile the employer&SEIU work together-usually not benefiting the employee. If you don't belong to the SEIU membership-YOU are still required to pay association fees equal to the amount you would have to pay for dues. Due amounts are based on "tier rating." Of course the more you make the higher the dues. I believe the fairly new employee that I spoke too said her's was a 100 a month. Benefits for the employer I used to work for are also being taken away as well-so much for union protection! Sick days not being paid until the 5th day(used to be 3rd), income protection days taken away, and if you are sick to long-it affects your vacation hours. These were just voted in/on. I have not been SICK since I have not been employed there. There absentism rules are such that, you come into work sick. Mind you this is a nursing home! I should have filed a work comp claim everytime I was sick! (from going to work).
My liberal-blockhead brother-in-law was a pilot for the old Eastern Airlines. They negotiated themselves, in effect, out of a job. Good ol' bro-in-law had to take a non-union job flying for an air freight company.
I don't like to see people financially hurt, but this guy (and his komrades) had it coming.
There are plenty of true stories about union work rules. It's sickening. Thanks for pointing this out.
Union dues= Extortion
Not exactly. It is more like pimping. You can't take care of yourself some someone like you takes a cut and pats you on the head and says you are better now.
Unions pimp payroll.
A Union Member can inform the Business Mgr to not allow any portion of their dues going to political causes…This has to be in writing of course. And really I don't know how that action can be monitored.
Associations are quite similar to unions as well, such as The American Medical Asoc. And for a while, the AMA was leaning towards the ObamaCare. I had a surgery last month and talked with many doctors ahd nurses and their biggest complaint today is not receiving payments from the insurance companies. 2nd complaint was being under paid by Medicare and/or Medacaid.
America is going thru "the time of Jacob's Troubles" & we are losing the Blessings of Abraham for our violations.
Same things happens at the Pennsylvania Convention in Philadelphia. Ask Glen Beck how he had to pay Union worker to carry bottled water to the inside
Remember, the CBO was called to the Whitehouse and Warned by Obama's Team and probably threatened………..
Our union dues have gone up and up, and we never get anything for it. Everything we have is from the old International Ladie's Garment Makers' Union years. They blame the Management–and management everywhere–but they never say, "Seeing as Management is so unfeeling about your wages and the cost of living, we'll freeze or even lower your dues." That will never happen. When we have thought about refusing a new contract over the years, and possibly risking a strike, they always talk us out of it. No wages during a strike, no dues. When we have lots of lay-offs, they still have us pay our dues. They think we're too stupid to notice, but we can't do anything now.
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SEIU is afiliated with Acorn and that alone makes them corrupt! They gladly involve themselves in politics rather than in improving the everyday lives of their members. Just like Acorn they need to be investigated and then put in jail! as a former union member i was always and will always be infuriated by the union ttaking my dues and uing them to help a politian get elected or to stay in office. It never brougt another nickel to me or my family. Most unions are just in it for the money! Your money and what it can do for the union bosses not the union memebers! Invetsigate SEIU and get then the hell out of politics!