ObamaCare mandate could lead Washington grocery workers to picket line
By Dan Springer Published October 11, 2013 FoxNews.com
Some 30,000 grocery store workers in the state of Washington could be walking picket lines as soon as next week, in what some say is a direct result of ObamaCare.
Big supermarket chains including Safeway, QFC, Albertsons and Fred Meyer are represented by Allied Employers in contract negotiations with the United Food and Commercial Workers and Teamsters. One of the employers' new proposals is to provide healthcare only to employees who work 30 or more hours per week, a minimum requirement under ObamaCare.
“As with all employers, the Affordable Care Act will impact how we deliver health benefits to our employees,” said Allied chief negotiator Scott Powers.
Under the most recent contract, workers got health care insurance if they put in a minimum of 16 hours per week.
Union officials say the President Obama's signature Affordable Care Act is being used as a convenient excuse to cut benefits.
“The reason why the employers are doing this is it's a big money grab," said Tom Geiger of UFCW Local 21.
The union grocery stores are following non-union employers, such as Home Depot and Trader Joe’s, in sending part-time workers into the government health care exchanges. Under the law, employers must pay a penalty if they don’t provide insurance coverage to employees who work at least 30 hours a week. The part-timers insurance rollback is the exact scenario the Teamsters and UFCW worried about when they wrote Democratic leaders, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. The letter warned, “The unintended consequences of the ACA are severe.”
The unions, which strongly supported President Obama’s re-election and his health care initiative, oppose several provisions which encourage employers to move some workers from their health care plans into the taxpayer subsidized exchanges.
One change they sought was scrapping a tax employers must pay on so-called Cadillac health care plans. Pro-business libertarians say employers are reacting to ObamaCare as expected.
“Why pay twice to maintain our own health insurance coverage for part-time employees, and pay taxes in order to subsidize the exchanges?” says Max Nelson of the Washington State think tank Freedom Foundation.
Union leaders are not swayed by the argument that many of the part-time clerks would be eligible for inexpensive or even free health care coverage in the exchange. They say the exchange plans are a big step down in quality of coverage.
UFCW members voted 98 percent to authorize a strike. Even as negotiations continue, the union is preparing for a walkout by naming strike captains and making picket line schedules.
Both sides hinted this could be the first of many strikes at least partially triggered by the Affordable Care Act.
TACOMA, Wash. — Approximately 1,000 members of United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 367 here are scheduled to take a strike vote Tuesday following expiration of their contracts Oct. 5.
Members of UFCW Local 21 in Seattle voted last month to authorize a strike following talks that have dragged on since their contract expired in May. The combined contracts cover approximately 20,000 workers at about 225 stores operated in the Pacific Northwest by Albertsons, Safeway and Kroger-owned Fred Meyer and Quality Food Centers.
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Negotiations, which resumed over the weekend after a month-long hiatus, are scheduled to resume Wednesday, the day after Local 367 votes.
According to a UFCW spokesman, "New ideas have been advanced to potentially solve health and pension plan problems, but these are complicated and technical, and we need to have our attorneys and experts review and analyze them further."
He told SN the "new ideas" were not part of a formal proposal but just points for discussion.
Eighty per cent of the affected workers are members of UFCW Local 21; approximately 10% are represented by UFCW Local 367 here, and the balance by Teamsters Local 38, which covers store workers in Snohomish County outside Seattle.
Greetings, I am a cutter in Kirkland and just narrowly avoided a strike. We came to an agreement with the company. For those of you not aware of the situation, the healthcare was not the biggest issue. The big chains also wanted to take away holiday pay, freeze wages $.15/hr lower than they currently are for three years, increase the hours it takes to reach journeyman to 10,000 from 6,000, among many others. Our union fought hard for us and now we have a tentative agreement that keeps our healthcare, fixes our sinking pension, and hopefully gets us a raise.
