Retailers take a stand


Is this the death knell for Big Labor?
Another look at the Wal-Mart law and it's implications.

America's retailers announced last week that they aren't especially keen to follow the steel, airline and perhaps auto industries into bankruptcy court. If Big Labor really wants a fight over mandated health insurance, it now has one.

The announcement came in the form of two federal lawsuits filed by the Retail Industry Leaders Association against the state of Maryland and Suffolk County, New York. At issue are the "Wal-Mart" laws that both jurisdictions recently passed, which would require a few large companies to pay more for their workers' health care. The lawsuits argue the statutes are "discriminatory," which may be the legal understatement of the year since both target only a few employers.

This is an unusual show of solidarity for the 400 or so member retail trade group, and it suggests more companies are figuring out that organized labor's campaign against Wal-Mart is merely a warm-up to a broader assault. Thanks to the exhortations of the AFL-CIO, some 30 states are now considering so-called fair-share health-care laws that force companies to devote a certain percentage of their payroll to health care. The common denominator is that all of these laws largely single out non-union employers.

The union strategy is to force any competitive, non-unionized company to incur the same labor-induced costs as their own beleaguered employers. Unionized grocers such as Safeway, Albertson's and Kroger have been losing the fight against their lower-cost competitors, and shedding jobs in the process. In the past decade, more than two dozen supermarket operators have sought bankruptcy court protection or liquidated. The union goal is to stop this bleeding by dragging the Wal-Marts and Costcos to their cost level.

That agenda was clear in the Maryland and Suffolk County laws, which made no pretense of raising health-care benefits for all workers. Instead, the Maryland statute required employers with more than 10,000 employees to spend at least 8% of its payroll on health care. Only one company fit the bill: Wal-Mart. The Suffolk County law also only applies to large grocery stores, and it specifically exempts union employers.

I say that there is an easy solution. Force all employers, no matter what the size, union and non union to pay the 8% in health care costs.

This should be applied to employees of the union as well.

And if people don't want to do it, just take 8% of their pay off the top before they ever see their paychecks. Better make it 12%, there is the processing fee and just to be safe and in full compliance with the law.

Yes, I am being sarcastic.

I'm also pointing out that is how the FedGovs and StateGovs get their hands on your money without getting you too angry.

Don't you think you can better choose how to spend your money? And as this article points out, even if you aren't employed by these companies, their higher costs show in the prices you pay.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Thu - February 16, 2006 at 04:54 PM  Tag


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