Nearly 80,000 trade unionists — most of them members of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) — either were on strike or were locked out in several states as this issue of the LOG went to press.An estimated 70,000 UFCW members were walking picket lines in California, Missouri, Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky. In Southern California, roughly 2,200 mechanics who are members of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) were on strike, while some 6,000 drivers and train operators in that region who also are ATU members walked off the job in solidarity. Also, some Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies reportedly engaged in “sick-outs” in a show of unity with the ATU and to protest burgeoning health care costs.
In fact, out-of-control health care costs are at the heart of the disputes.
“Our nation is facing a health care crisis of colossal proportions. The tens of thousands of workers who are on strike for quality, affordable health care are taking a stand for all American working families who are being squeezed beyond their limits by our broken and inadequate health care system,” stated AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. “We commend the grocery store workers and Los Angeles transit workers who are exercising their unified voice on this issue through their respective unions and insisting that they will not sacrifice affordable health care.”
Although the details vary from contract to contract, the dilemma faced by Kroger workers in Charleston, W. Va. is representative of the problems caused by continually growing health care costs. There, workers are striking in part because of a company proposal that either would cut their health benefits or cost them up to $100 more per week — per worker — to maintain their current coverage.
The story is similar at other grocery stores where workers are on strike or are locked out, including Kroger Company’s Ralphs, Safeway Inc.’s Vons, Albertsons, Shop ’n Save, Schnucks, and Dierbergs. In San Diego, for example, the Albertsons chain pays $3.78 into the workers’ insurance fund for each hour an employee is on the job. UFCW members there turned down a proposal to reduce contributions for new hires to $1.35 an hour—a reduction that the union noted would weaken the overall to fund to 50 percent of its current value.
“Nearly every major labor action this year has been the result of runaway health care costs and employers’ attempts to foist those skyrocketing costs onto workers,” Sweeney noted.
The federation president pointed out that between the years 2000 and 2002, the premiums paid by workers for family health insurance in the most widely used type of health plan soared by 20 percent, while employers have been cutting the benefits families get from their health plans. Nearly 44 million Americans were uninsured in 2002, an increase of 3.7 million over 2000. Many of those who have lost health care still have jobs—80 percent of the uninsured live in working households—but can’t afford the employer-provided coverage.
“When employers shift costs to workers, entire communities suffer because they are expected to pick up the tab for the increased public health care costs,” Sweeney said. “Both employers and workers need relief from high costs. “The legislation recently enacted in California to develop strategies to do this is a welcome start and other states, as well as the federal government, would be well-advised to follow California’s lead in finding long-term solutions to moderating health costs. In the meantime, pushing the bill for increasing health costs off on workers is no solution.”
Health care costs are hurting workers in other ways. Ron Blackwell, the federation’s director of corporate affairs, recently told the Associated Press, “In some cases, workers could have probably gotten higher wages (in their contracts) had they not had to bargain for health benefits.”
On average, employees nationwide pay approximately 16 percent of the cost of single coverage and 27 percent of the cost of family coverage. According to news reports, the University of California next year will charge employees who cover two-adult households double the premium paid by single-employee households.
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