Is Delta planning on cutting you back to 30 hours a week due to Obmacare? Sounds like you might need a union then.
See if you can get through this article:
http://tpmdc.talking...the-law.php?m=1
Here is a piece of it:
"You know things have gone weird in the runup to Obamacare's big rollout when Republicans are quoting big-name union leaders to make the case for scrapping the whole law.
But it turns out this alliance of convenience is bound by two interwoven acts of self-interest: the GOP's unwillingness to fix one flawed piece of the law; and certain unions' efforts to create a special carveout for their members to offset potential disruptions Obamacare might create for workers and unions at a politically vulnerable moment for the ACA.
Ironically, when Republicans side with labor against Obamacare, they're unintentionally and obliquely endorsing efforts to secure tax subsidization for unions.
In a recent letter to the two top Democrats on Capitol Hill, the leaders of the Teamsters, United Food and Commercial Workers, and Unite Here wrote grimly about Obamacare, whose key benefits kick in five short months from now.
"
nless you and the Obama Administration enact an equitable fix, the ACA will shatter not only our hard-earned health benefits, but destroy the foundation of the 40 hour work week that is the backbone of the American middle class," the letter reads.
They raise three concerns in their letter. The first is well known.
"[T]he law creates an incentive for employers to keep employees' work hours below 30 hours a week," the letter explains. "Numerous employers have begun to cut workers' hours to avoid this obligation, and many of them are doing so openly. The impact is two-fold: fewer hours means less pay while also losing our current health benefits."
This is a real issue, and was a big part of the reason the Obama administration has delayed implementation of the law's employer mandate for one year. Ideally, Congress would simply tweak the offending provision, but the GOP has committed to never tinkering with the law to make it better, and so the provision in question does threaten worker compensation and benefits.
Until the GOP moves off its position, there's nothing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi can do to fix it.
But that complaint serves as window dressing for the nex two items on the list, which are at the core of their concerns.
Instead of teaming up with big private insurers, some employers and unions have for years jointly run their own, non-profit group plans. These so-called Taft-Hartley plans function for many purposes like regular employer-sponsored insurance, and are treated as such in the tax code: employer contributions to premiums are tax deductible, and employee contributions are pre-tax. Nevertheless, unions are beseeching Democrats to reinterpret or change the law so that these particular beneficiaries also benefit from new tax credits intended to subsidize individuals who will be purchasing their own insurance in the exchanges. A double subsidy."
It explains things pretty well about the union/Republican positions on the ACA.
