Labor unions at war w/ Obama – & each other – on #Obamacare

The Hill reports on the increasing frustration some labor unions feel towards the President over his signature law Obamacare:

Unions are frustrated the Obama administration hasn’t responded to their calls for changes to ObamaCare.

Labor has watched with growing annoyance as the White House has backed ObamaCare changes in response to concerns from business groups, religious organizations and even lawmakers and their staffs.

They say they don’t understand why their concerns so far have fallen of deaf ears.

β€œWe are disappointed that the non-profit health plans offered by unions have not been given the same consideration as the Catholic Church, big business and Capitol Hill staffers,” Unite Here President D. Taylor told The Hill.

It’s an issue that Obama may have to face when he speaks to the AFL-CIO convention a week after Labor Day.

Most unions backed ObamaCare’s passage, but labor argues provisions in the law could cut employee hours, unfairly tax their plans and force workers off their union health plans into the law’s potentially more costly insurance exchanges.

The key issue are union members who are among the roughly 20 million people who use non-profit multi-employer β€œTaft-Hartley” health plans.

Unions want the administration to change ObamaCare so that those plans are treated as qualified health plans that can earn tax subsidies. Under the administration’s interpretation of the law, the multi-employer plans are not eligible for the subsidies.

Without those subsidies, employers may have the incentive to drop the plans and force workers onto the insurance exchanges.

You mean union workers might have to face some of the same issues we rank and file folks have already been facing as a result of the forced passage of this deeply unpopular law? GASP! Oh, and to union leaders who don’t understand why President Obama has been ignoring your complaints about Obamacare, guess what? He doesn’t care. He doesn’t need your votes anymore. Β Understand now? Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

This issue has become such a big deal with labor unions that at least one of them is breaking ties with the AFL-CIO:

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union has cut ties with the AFL-CIO, citing in part the private-sector union’s support for ObamaCare and immigration reform.

In anΒ August 29 letterΒ to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, leaders of the 40,000-member union said they have become β€œincreasingly frustrated” with the federation’s policy positions on such matters as immigration and health care reform.

β€œWe feel the federation has done a great disservice to the labor movement and all working people,” wrote Robert McEllrath, president of the San Francisco-based ILWU.

McEllrath said his union supports the single-payer, nationalized healthcare policy while the AFL-CIO backs Obama’s tax on its so-called “Cadillac” healthcare plan, according toΒ Breitbart.com, which first reported the story.

“President Obama ran on a platform that he would not tax medical plans and at the 2009 AFL-CIO Convention, you stated that labor would not stand for a tax on our benefits,” the letter states.

Democrats and labor unions (but I repeat myself) are engaged in heavy, sustained infighting over Obamacare? Pass the popcorn! ;)

ObamaCare
ObamaCare: Bad for your wallet … and your health.

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