Maryland Grocery Store Limiting Full-Time Workers Due To ObamaCare, here is the Libertarian Republican commentary:
Boom! Right near the belly of the beast, Washington, D.C. A local news report, obviously too hot to handle for national liberal-biased media.
Exit question – Wonder how many Capitol Hill staffers, Fed bureaucrats at HHS and even some WH administration staffers shop at Snider’s?
This news comes from Libertarian Republican:
The Daily Caller got the scoop. The DC Italian restaurant Filomena was once rated as a “personal favorite of President Bill Clinton.”
He dined there on numerous occasions with visiting heads of state.
Now, a post by the restaurant on its website reads:
“Because of the potentially large new expense of offering healthcare coverage to 90 employees, we had to look for areas of operations that were either marginal or losing money to trim expenses or losses and find new areas to increase business so that we could keep all our employees and continue to grow our business.”
“Because restaurants such as ours, 86 employees, are so labor intense the potential expense of offering coverage to so many could threaten independently owned restaurants like ours,” it added. “Our goal is to tackle the problem head on and find ways to pay for it without losing our employees…
Via Gateway Pundit:
A new report by the Federal Reserve links Obamacare to lack of job creation – ten times. The Foundry reported:
We already knew that many employers plan to cut workers’ hours to stay under the threshold of Obamacare mandates. This makes full-time jobs—much less full-time jobs with health benefits—harder to come by.
It’s more difficult to track the phantom jobs that just don’t exist today because of Obamacare’s strain on employers. But the latest report from the Federal Reserve confirms that they are all too real.
The Federal Reserve collects feedback from businesses and issues reports about the economic outlook. Its latest report directly links Obamacare to a lack of hiring. In fact, it cites Obamacare’s mandates and regulations 10 times.
“In the run-up to a possible government shutdown, the White House’s allies in organized labor are mostly silent…” ~ Politico (via Sweetness & Light)Silence Is Louder than Words
SEIU unionists strike over Obamacare-related cuts
Members of the Chicago-based Service Employees International Union Local 1 have gone on strike over recent job cuts by a janitorial company called Professional Maintenance.
The reason for the cuts? The employer says it is because of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. This is ironic since SEIU is a major supporter of the law.
Tyler French, Local 1’s organizing director, told Mediatrackers Ohio the company claimed it had to cut its employees’ hours due to Obamacare mandates.
French did not believe the explanation, though, calling it the “latest excuse in a long line of many that we’ve seen from corporate America.”
But others throughout the organized labor movement have warned that such actions will be a direct consequence of the President Obama’s health care law.
(From a BIG post on this topic)
Continuing…
At the AFL-CIO’s convention in Los Angeles earlier this month, Loretta Johnson, secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers, said it was already happening in her union.
“We are seeing employer after employer cut hours so as to avoid the 30-hour definition of a full-time job,” Johnson said. The AFL-CIO passed a resolution demanding either Congress or Obama fix the law to stop it from hurting union members.
American Thinker astutely comments:
….The irony in this case is rich. And the union’s denial of the reason for the cuts is childish. We have seen union after union plead with Obama for relief. Some received waivers that allow them to delay implementation of Obamacare’s rules and regulations. But most find themselves stuck with a law that is going to impoverish their members. It just never occurred to these labor bosses that a government program could actually harm them.
[….]
As with everything else related to Obamacare, the law of unintended consequences rules.
Many companies are moving a large majority of their work force to part-time in order to stay in business:
This has the biggest proponents of the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or, Obama-Care), the three biggest unions, up in arms. This from a previous post of mine:
…Labor unions are among the key institutions responsible for the passage of Obamacare. They spent tons of money electing Democrats to Congress in 2006 and 2008, and fought hard to push the health law through the legislature in 2009 and 2010. But now, unions are waking up to the fact that Obamacare is heavily disruptive to the health benefits of their members.
Last Thursday, representatives of three of the nation’s largest unions fired off a letter to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, warning that Obamacare would “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.”…
Unions have expressed two major concerns:
1) the workforce they represent will lose hours by being moved to 29-hours;
2) they will not be able to keep their health-care, as Obama promised.
And recently, at a very public meeting, the unions doubled-downed on the deleterious affects of the ACA.
You see, full time under Obama-Care is 30-hours, so many businesses are moving their full time employees to part-time in order to stay competitive and solvent. One example is Forever 21.
This from Breitbart:
Because ObamaCare is nothing more than a wealth redistribution policy that forces the productive to pay for the non-productives’ Cadillac health plans (which include birth control), costs are about to explode. As a result, employers are desperate to cut the burden of their health care costs, which is why our economy is hardly creating any full-time jobs, and the part-time employees at Trader Joe’s just lost their health insurance benefits:
After extending health care coverage to many of its part-time employees for years, Trader Joe’s has told workers who log fewer than 30 hours a week that they will need to find insurance on the Obamacare exchanges next year, according to a confidential memo from the grocer’s chief executive.
In the memo to staff dated Aug. 30, Trader Joe’s CEO Dan Bane said the company will cut part-timers a check for $500 in January and help guide them toward finding a new plan under the Affordable Care Act. The company will continue to offer health coverage to workers who carry 30 hours or more on average. …
A current Trader Joe’s worker described the coverage she’ll likely lose as “one of the best parts about the job.” (The employee requested anonymity since she isn’t authorized to speak to the media.) She said she pays only $35 per paycheck, or $70 per month, for a plan that generally covers 80 percent of her medical costs, carries a reasonable $500 deductible and includes prescription drug coverage.
“There are several folks I work with who are there for the insurance as much as anything, mostly folks with young families,” she said. “I can say that when I opened and read the letter yesterday my reaction was pure panic, followed quickly by anger.”
Meanwhile, the American media treats those in the GOP attempting to defund the ruination of ObamaCare as extremist freaks.
Gateway Pundits story links out to a Forbes Magazine article talking about how the ACA hurts patients with diseases like Cancer (see WSJ article on this). The WaPo article Gateway quotes from says this:
…companies typically offer them to stay competitive. A robust health plan can go a long way in wooing potential employees – especially when most of the market doesn’t offer part-time workers the opportunity to buy coverage.
This is important, because Trader Joe’s has gotten workers that WANT these benefits and work well to keep them. Trader Joe’s stays competitive this way. Now… not soo much, and their quality of worker will decrease slowly as more-and-more get the same benefits.
Another employer jumping into the 29-hours-or-less fray is SeaWorld, via the Orlando Sentinel:
SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. is reducing hours for thousands of part-time workers, a move that would allow the Orlando-based theme-park owner to avoid offering those employees medical insurance under the federal government’s health-care overhaul.
SeaWorld confirmed the move Monday in a brief written statement to the Orlando Sentinel. The company operates 11 theme parks across the United States and has about 22,000 employees — nearly 18,000 of whom are part-time or seasonal workers. It has more than 4,000 part-time and seasonal workers in Central Florida.
Under a new corporate policy, SeaWorld will schedule part-time workers for no more than 28 hours a week, down from a previous limit of 32 hours a week. The new cap is expected to go into effect by November.
All this doesn’t matter to some, because the new norm is “fairness.” For instance, when a health-care company (one of many*) lays off 100-workers due to the rising costs in the ACA, some Obama-Lemmings say it is fair:
Georgia Healthcare Company to Lay Off Over 100 Because of Obamacare
“We have confirmed more than 100 Emory health care employees are going to lose their jobs in part because of the Affordable (health) Care Act,” said a local anchor.
“I think it’s bad it’s affordable health care and people are losing their jobs,” said a man interviewed by the reporter.
“It’s sad. It really is,” said another man. “A lot of people are going to lose their homes and cars and everything they worked all their life for.”
(Editors commentary: The video at the link shows the above woman saying she thinks its fair — Its an Obama world — I wonder if she would have said the same thing if Bush was in office? And how would this opposition to Bush, then — according to the consensus of the legacy media — not be racist if speaking your mind about Obama is?)
http://tinyurl.com/lyjczd4
================
http://tinyurl.com/n4dy726
Besides leading Democrats supporting Sarah Palin’s many year old [now] contention that there are DEATH PANELS in the ACA, Many more jobs will be lost and it is already tracking this direction. In one discussion on a friends FaceBook, I responded to a friend of his who didn’t appreciate the “meme” he posted:
His friend said this:
To which I responded:
The number is actually much higher than both the Meme portray, and the slanted HuffPo Puff piece. For instance:
GALLOP POLL/TECHNICAL
————————————–
….”If the small businesses’ fears are reasonable, then it could mean that the small business sector grows slower than what economic conditions otherwise would indicate. And small businesses have been a growth engine in the economy,” Friedman told CNBC.
Forty-one percent of the businesses surveyed have frozen hiring because of the health-care law known as Obamacare. And almost one-fifth—19 percent— answered “yes” when asked if they had “reduced the number of employees you have in your business as a specific result of the Affordable Care Act.”
The poll was taken by 603 owners whose businesses have under $20 million in annual sales.
Another 38 percent of the small business owners said they “have pulled back on their plans to grow their business” because of Obamacare.
Those are “some pretty startling answers,” Friedman said.
“To think that [nearly] 20 percent of small businesses have already reduced the numbers they have in their business because they’re concerned about the medical coverage is significant, and a bit troubling,” Friedman said.
• http://www.cnbc.com/id/100825782
• http://www.cnbc.com/id/100783056
——————————————-
ANECDOTAL
I worked for Hughes Market for many years, then Ralph’s, and finally Whole Foods until my illness. I know some “old-school” market guys… and a manager I have known for over 2-decades said Ralph’s is going to be cutting hours as much as possible to 29 for their employees.
HORSES MOUTH
I blogged on this a while ago, the three biggest unions which pushed Obama-Care (ACA). Here is a bit of commentarry and what Jimmi Hoffa wrote:
——————————————
Labor unions are among the key institutions responsible for the passage of Obamacare. They spent tons of money electing Democrats to Congress in 2006 and 2008, and fought hard to push the health law through the legislature in 2009 and 2010. But now, unions are waking up to the fact that Obamacare is heavily disruptive to the health benefits of their members.
Last Thursday, representatives of three of the nation’s largest unions fired off a letter to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, warning that Obamacare would “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 was penned by James P. Hoffa, general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters; Joseph Hansen, international president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union; and Donald “D.” Taylor, president of UNITE-HERE, a union representing hotel, airport, food service, gaming, and textile workers.
“When you and the President sought our support for the Affordable Care Act,” they begin, “you pledged that if we liked the health plans we have now, we could keep them. Sadly, that promise is under threat…We have been strong supporters of the notion that all Americans should have access to quality, affordable health care. We have also been strong supporters of you. In campaign after campaign we have put boots on the ground, gone door-to-door to get out the vote, run phone banks and raised money to secure this vision. Now this vision has come back to haunt us.”
[….]
What surprises me about this is that union leaders are pretty strategic when it comes to employee benefits. It was obvious in 2009 that Obamacare’s employer mandate would incentivize this shift. Why didn’t labor unions fight it back then?
Read more: http://tinyurl.com/mdeamqd
———————————————
In that same posting I list some startling facts from the Chamber of Commerce, who from their poll said that 74% of small businesses will fire workers, or cut hours under Obamacare. In other words, the left is hurting those it claims to care about — the working poor — more than it is helping them. A good book on this and other economic issues is Arthur Brook’s, “The Road to Freedom: How to Win the Fight for Free Enterprise.”
So Tom, your Meme didn’t go far enough. And J.C., the Huff Puff piece was weak.
I added an afterthought to the discussion:
An after thought. Since the DNC leadership has said — recently — the goal is single-payer… the question becomes this then: “what other area of life would a person want single payer in?” The airlines? Fast-food? Grocery stores? Car dealers? Education? Gyms?
In other words, why would someone rejects a single airline, a single grocery-store (sorry weekend BBQ’ers, no more carne-asada from Vallerta), etc. — where competition drives prices down and offers in the best way (the markets supply and demand) what customers want… but reject all that for a system that is failing in Canada, Britain, and the like?
It seems counter-intuitive that the left likes to break up large companies/corporations that get too big, and speak about the “evils” large companies do to the consumer, but then want single-payer. Odd indeed.
NBC is FINALLY tracking with some of the above… why not the electorate?
* (RPT) …Like medical giant, Stryker, one of Obama’s biggest financial backers, laying off almost 1,200 workers to prep for Obama-Care, and the falling revenue (33%) of the Californian government showing in the the micro what higher taxes and more regulation does to the engine of the economy. Here are more stories of failure, and how these higher taxes will hit the retired folks that worked hard their whole lives, just to see it disappear. Google and Microsoft are two of Obama’s largest financial backers (Bloomberg):
The company avoided about $2 billion in worldwide income taxes in 2011 by shifting $9.8 billion in revenue into a Bermuda shell company, almost double the total from three years before, filings show.
Governments in France, the U.K., Italy and Australia are probing Google’s tax avoidance as they seek to boost revenue. Schmidt said the company’s efforts around taxes are legal.
We pay lots of taxes; we pay them in the legally prescribed ways,” he said. “I am very proud of the structure that we set up. We did it based on the incentives that the governments offered us to operate.”
The company isn’t about to turn down big savings in taxes, he said.
“It’s called capitalism,” he said. “We are proudly capitalistic. I’m not confused about this.”
[….]
Google’s overall effective tax rate dropped to 21 percent last year from about 28 percent in 2008. That compares with the average combined U.S. and state statutory rate of about 39 percent.
Costco also was a huge supported of Obama and is borrowing money to avoid paying higher taxes on it now (WSJ):
When President Obama needed a business executive to come to his campaign defense, Jim Sinegal was there. The Costco COST +1.92% co-founder, director and former CEO even made a prime-time speech at the Democratic Party convention in Charlotte. So what a surprise this week to see that Mr. Sinegal and the rest of the Costco board voted to give themselves a special dividend to avoid Mr. Obama’s looming tax increase. Is this what the President means by “tax fairness”?
Specifically, the giant retailer announced Wednesday that the company will pay a special dividend of $7 a share this month. That’s a $3 billion Christmas gift for shareholders that will let them be taxed at the current dividend rate of 15%, rather than next year’s rate of up to 43.4%—an increase to 39.6% as the Bush-era rates expire plus another 3.8% from the new ObamaCare surcharge.
More striking is that Costco also announced that it will borrow $3.5 billion to finance the special payout. Dividends are typically paid out of earnings, either current or accumulated. But so eager are the Costco executives to get out ahead of the tax man that they’re taking on debt to do so.
[….]
To sum up: Here we have people at the very top of the top 1% who preach about tax fairness voting to write themselves a huge dividend check to avoid the Obama tax increase they claim it is a public service to impose on middle-class Americans who work for 30 years and finally make $250,000 for a brief window in time.
If they had any shame, they’d send their entire windfall to the Treasury.
[….]1) On a dark street, a man draws a knife and demands my money for drugs;
2) Instead of demanding my money for drugs, he demands it for the Church;
3) Instead of being alone, he is with a bishop of the Church who acts as the bagman;
4) Instead of drawing a knife, he produces a policeman who says I must do as he says;
5) Instead of meeting me on the street, he mails me his demand as an official agent of the government.
If the first is theft, it is difficult to see why the other four are not also theft.
It must be nice that these large corporations that pushed for Obama-Care (laughably the “Affordable Care Act”) have the ability to get loans to help buffer against the costs of it. Their smaller mom-and-pop competition that bites into their profits? Not so much. One way to corner more of the market:
You can add “health-care” to the graphic below:
Apparently PolicyMic is out of the loop, this is one of many companies that are cutting hours due the Affordable Care Act. I wonder if this is what Mary Landrieu meant by saying Obama-Care causes “no more free rides“?
The predictions and fears of the Affordable Care Act’s adversaries have begun to materialize, specifically fears that the law will encourage employers to demote their employees to part-time positions in order to evade federal health care requirements. Popular clothing company Forever 21 is the first of what might be many companies to limit its non-management workers’ hours to 29.5 a week, just below the 30-hour minimum that the ACA deems full-time work.
Explaining that the company “recently audited its staffing levels, staffing needs, and payroll in conjunction with reviewing its overall operating budget,” Associate Director of Human Resources Carla Macias informed employees that effective 8/31/13, they will no longer be full-time employees of Forever 21.
It is a move that will likely harm the reputation of the company, will absolutely harm the economic circumstances of its employees, and will function as a tangible example of the Affordable Care Act’s consequences and shortcomings.
[…..]
It is probable that in a perfect world, Forever 21’s management would love to continue employing full-time workers, provide them with substantial health care benefits, and maintain low prices for its customers. But in a nation with uniquely high health care costs, an issue that the Affordable Care Act fails to address, this is a regrettably unrealistic business model.
Via Michelle Malkin:
(Via GayPatriot) The White House still dismisses the evidence as “anecdotal”, as NBC points out – and despite the growing data on the matter.
NBC delicately uses “unintended consequences” to describe the Obamacare job/hour losses, despite the fact that such losses were foreseen by many.
Via Zero Hedge.
Last month, Jay Carney said that the suggestion that Obamacare is reducing full-time hiring is “belied by the facts,” not unlike Jay Carney usually is.
There have been numerous reports of slashed worker hours due to looming Obama-care regs, and it must be pretty bad because even the networks are starting to catch on. NBC News contacted numerous businesses and others and found that hours are being cut because of Obamacare (video via Weasel Zippers).
That story should come as a surprise only to those who get all their information from network newscasts.
The White House has to stick to their story because they have no other choice:
But the White House, NBC News reports, says that there is no systematic evidence that this is because of Obamacare and dismisses the report as anecdotal.
Maybe President Obama can straighten out the CEO of NBC’s parent company, because they’re playing golf today.
Add this to the BIG THREE unions saying they were swindled:
74% of small businesses will fire workers, cut hours under Obamacare
Despite the administration’s controversial decision to delay forcing companies to join Obamacare for a year, three-quarters of small businesses are still making plans to duck the costly law by firing workers, reducing hours of full-time staff, or shift many to part-time, according to a sobering survey released by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
“Small businesses expect the requirement to negatively impact their employees. Twenty-seven percent say they will cut hours to reduce full time employees, 24 percent will reduce hiring, and 23 percent plan to replace full time employees with part-time workers to avoid triggering the mandate,” said the Chamber business survey provided to Secrets.
Under Obamacare, just 30 hours — not the nationally recognized 40 hours — is considered full-time. Companies with 50 full-time workers or more are required to provide health care, or pay a fine.
[….]
Other key findings from the Chamber survey:
— 77 percent continue to think the U.S. economy is on the wrong track. However, small businesses are more optimistic about their local economy and individual business.
— The majority (61 percent) of small businesses do not have plans to hire next year.
— Concerns about regulation have increased significantly from 35 percent last quarter to 42 percent now. Small businesses are looking for leadership on issues that will remove barriers and encourage growth.
— 88 percent of all small businesses support addressing entitlement spending to resolve America’s growing financial challenges and escalating debt.
— 83 percent support congressional efforts to reform the tax code — with the majority focusing on making it less complex.
— 81 percent of small businesses surveyed believe the immigration system is broken and needs to be reformed.
— In contrast to the president’s recent speech pushing new energy regulations, 90 percent of small businesses support easing EPA regulations and opening up more federal lands for drilling.
Via Forbes:
Labor Unions: Obamacare Will ‘Shatter’ Our Health Benefits, Cause ‘Nightmare Scenarios’
Labor unions are among the key institutions responsible for the passage of Obamacare. They spent tons of money electing Democrats to Congress in 2006 and 2008, and fought hard to push the health law through the legislature in 2009 and 2010. But now, unions are waking up to the fact that Obamacare is heavily disruptive to the health benefits of their members.
Last Thursday, representatives of three of the nation’s largest unions fired off a letter to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, warning that Obamacare would “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 was penned by James P. Hoffa, general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters; Joseph Hansen, international president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union; and Donald “D.” Taylor, president of UNITE-HERE, a union representing hotel, airport, food service, gaming, and textile workers.
“When you and the President sought our support for the Affordable Care Act,” they begin, “you pledged that if we liked the health plans we have now, we could keep them. Sadly, that promise is under threat…We have been strong supporters of the notion that all Americans should have access to quality, affordable health care. We have also been strong supporters of you. In campaign after campaign we have put boots on the ground, gone door-to-door to get out the vote, run phone banks and raised money to secure this vision. Now this vision has come back to haunt us.”
[….]
What surprises me about this is that union leaders are pretty strategic when it comes to employee benefits. It was obvious in 2009 that Obamacare’s employer mandate would incentivize this shift. Why didn’t labor unions fight it back then?
Via HotAir:
Krauthammer: Unions are in a state of “desperation and disappointment” over ObamaCare
One of Democrats’ most traditionally loyal and vociferous factions of support, Big Labor is most upset about the law they for which they very proactively helped to shore up support and make sure stayed in place.
The usually solid benefits and health care options, for instance, are traditionally some of the biggest attractions for even being in a union in the first place; but with ObamaCare mucking up their multi-employer health plan system and with employers moving to part-time employees right and left, unions are now in an outraged and yet entirely predictable panic:
[Big Labor Wakes Up to ObamaCare]
The first union grievance is that the employer mandate is leading business to hold worker hours below 30 hours a week to comply with the Administration’s regulatory definition. Despite the one-year suspension of the mandate, many businesses that must provide insurance or pay a penalty are shifting to part-time labor, and the union chiefs explain that “fewer hours means less pay while also losing our current health benefits.” Nice to know Mr. Hoffa is reading these columns.
The unions are also aggrieved because they have failed to gain special subsidies for the multi-employer health insurance plans allowed under the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947. The White House had no legal authority to grant such a request, so refusing to do so for a major political patron showed unusual restraint. …
What Mr. Hoffa and the other union reps don’t mention amid their cold sweats is that less employer-provided insurance means less of a role for unions as middle men in contract negotiations….
Via Real Clear Politics:
Krauthammer: Unions Got “Swindled” By Obamacare, In State Of “Desperation And Disappointment”
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: It is true, they supported the bill, they supported the administration, they helped elect it, had the boots on the ground and they were swindled, but it isn’t as if they weren’t warned. People who looked at the bill said the way it is constructed, there’s this huge incentive for any business, small business, to drop the number of employees under 50, the firms are now known as the 49ers, so people get fired as a way to get under the requirement of employer mandate.
It also means that a lot of full time employees are going to lose at least ten hours of work, they have to get under 30 hours. So, if you’re a full-time worker now, you’re not going to be able to support a family on part time income. But the worst is as you indicated, that they’re going to lose their members. The glory of the union movement is that beginning in the second World War when there were wage and price controls, companies competed against each other by including health care in the package. That was the beginning of that. And that’s one of the great achievements of unions.
Now what they’re seeing is workers are looking at the exchanges and seeing, ‘I can drop out of the employer plan, I get a huge subsidy, I come out ahead, and don’t have to be a member of the union.’ So this is a disaster for the unions and that’s why you have this letter of desperation and disappointment. (Special Report, July 17, 2013)