A Real Employee Free Choice Act

Wall Street Journal:

As health reform legislation hurtles toward its finale, corporate America has rushed to the barricades to make sure that big business remains at the heart of the welfare state. The Business Roundtable, the Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers are united in their belief that Sen. Ron Wyden's (D., Ore.) "free choice amendment" must be stopped.

Read the whole story: Wall Street Journal

Comments

[Rule Of Law]

The Chamber of Commerce:

Not real

Not American

Not Free

[chasedeconomy]

Everything but the little people have become too big to fail

good articles; http://iamned.blogspot.com

Everyday we pay the consequences of Reaganomics

[Gernuser]

To make matters far worse, consider what the US government has actually done to fix the underlying problems? Nothing

good articles; http://iamned.blogspot.com

The government has put the same punch bowl out that got us into the mess in the first place. More debt and consumption and don't worry about paying it back. (Berbnanke= Greenspan II)

[LeeCalif]

The US Chamber of Commerce continues to be completely anti-people.

[Lochmon]

The article makes some interesting points, but the author seems baffled by why HR executives would oppose increasing insurance options and portability for employees.

It's very simple: current employer-provided insurance, without portability, tends to make it harder for people to switch jobs as easily as they might prefer. (And as we know, for people with chronic medical conditions it can become almost impossible to change jobs.)

Many HR executives receive bonuses based at least partly on employee retention, and on keeping employee remuneration as low as possible.

Anything that might complicate their own bonuses is clearly to be avoided... whatever might be best for the corporation as a whole.

[vstar]

EXACTLY. They'd rather have the power and control.

[Dbos]

Small businesses, politicians ,labor unions ,mid size businesses if you need low cost health insurance , let your local chamber of commerce know you dont approve of lobbying for big business , then get out.

[nastywolf]

My experience as a SoCal political activist is that local Chambers are in business strictly to have a seat in the back room when local political decisions are made. I'm guessing its the same all over and especially on the national level. Orgs like this understand that to maintain that seat they need to keep the riff raff, like you and I out of the back room and they can only do that by joining forces with like-minded groups who can't stand the thought of American voters calling the shots. So, the Chambers' are more than likely to act AGAINST their own interest, as long as by doing so they keep us out of the political process and hold on to their back room seats.

[karma004]

I've got a few theories on why big business is against a public option:
1. Their employees are currently indentured servants to their company due to non-portability of health insurance coverage.
2. Possible kickbacks from insurance premiums paid by their employees, for "administrative costs."
3. Once corruption is removed from the health care industry, removing corruption from their industry may be next.

[Dbos]

agree 1&3 for sure

[PlaceboStudman]

(according to the HP Headline) Big Business is fighting the president's $5B in grants to the NIH?

Really?

Because THAT is the biggest reform that is happening in Health Care

Oh, you mean insurance reform that you're all mistakenly *calling* health care reform

Never mind

[iblogleft]

Absolutely.

What is not great about freeing American business from the clutches of the sick care industry?

Only one thing I can think of; It is easier to hold a hammer over employees heads (through the threat of loss of health coverage) then to create a working environment that encourages employee loyalty.

Guess what? It will happen, eventually. Are we going to make it the easy way, or the hard way?

[blueken]

When does the hammer start to cost too much. My employer is shelling out $300 a week to cover me and my wife and it's going no where but up unless we put a stop to this madness. I can see why the heatlh care industrial complex wants this insanity to go on forever, but the rest of the economy is in a choke hold. When will the other 74% of the economy demand an end to this dysfunctional system?

[jweider]

After watching health care bankrupt the US auto industry, you would think that Big Business would be pushing for single payer to get out of the health care provider business all together.

[BBackSoon]

I would agree with you but if you notice most Big American Industries are simply closing US Plants and opening ones in other Lower Cost Countries. And many smaller plants simply pay workers minimum wage or less than a living wage with little or no bennies, I am not calling them bad guys but it is the only way they can compete.

Maybe the cost of healthcare is simply a straw man that can be put out in front so we don’t simply attack the practice of moving plants overseas not only because the health care costs are cheaper, but there is also less Organized Labor, Less Environmental restrictions, less Safety restrictions. All of which make for better profits for the mother company.

[DRaymond]

What is going on here is that a horribly wastefull system is still filling someone's paycheck (and perhaps the more wastefull the system, the more and fatter paychecks it is supporting). And those people will lobby to keep their paychecks flowing. So who will lose headcount if employer based insurance is moved away from? HR benefits administrators. And who is lobbying against the change? HR benefits administrators.

[GrizzlyBowman]

There will always be some scapegoat for big business to point the finger at when their own foibles lead the enterprise down a disastrous path. It's not eighty seven thousand dollar rugs, it's not five million dollar jets, it's not petty crooks with luminous titles like "executive" embezzling money from the coffers; it's the unions.

It's the working people. The moms and pops scraping by to feed little Joe and Jane. Their tears are whines; their needs are extraneous. The most infinitesimal, minute bit of resources can't be spared so the youth tied to the success of their parents can go to decent schools, have food in their bellies, and have toys to amuse them. No. No, no. The bottom line is everything and the philosophy is nothing.

The business plan is, buckle your seat belts and get ready to crash. When the common people cry to us for empathy, we are deaf to it. But when we cry for rescue from the rubble, they had better bail us out.

[robjh1]

Big business always has its hands in things it shouldn't. Perhaps they should try balancing their books and not cooking them.


"and we are not saved..."

[Fight4Freedom2008]

The Chamber Of Commerce religiously supports big business. They're just a jobber taking a bite of the pie. Who holds the biggest piece? Do ya think they'd rather drink water or wine... what's more valuable monetarily speaking?