Grocery workers voted 90% in favor of strike to protect their existing health care benefits, the free health care agreed to eight years ago. They are rejecting full benefits costing $9/wk for individuals and $17/wk for families.
Meanwhile, AP reports that 10% of medium and large companies are planning to drop health benefits altogether in 2014, and another 20% are considering it. I think these grocery workers need to get back into touch with reality.
Update: As a further reality check for grocery workers, they are upset because the proposed cost for health care, including vision and dental, will be $92/month per family. Retired persons on Social Security, which is a lot less than grocery workers make, pay $96.50/mth individually for Medicare.
I think the made a mistake last time and are doing so again. I don't know if the union leadership is encouraging this or even what they think. Perhaps this in in response the the Wisconsin union shutout and union bashing in general, and they are taking a stand.
ReplyDeleteHealth care needs more reform and maybe a wholesale tear-up-the- paper-and-start-over. There are a lot of good ideas out there (look to Europe and Japan) and a lot of bad ones (usually from specific segments of the system without looking at it as a whole). As long as there are petty grievances, fiefdoms to defend and profits to be preserved - and no one with the guts to defy that - nothing will be done. Sad.
And Medicare does NOT include vision and dental. Get real, folks - you need to understand how good you have it.
ReplyDelete