Steeped in the problems of diminishing sense of corporate responsibility for employee health security, cost shifting by employers, and national trends toward individual versus collective responsibility are the state’s labor unions.
CEO and its members are very concerned about the challenges being faced by union negotiators today at the bargaining table. Non-unionized companies, such as Walmart, are setting the standards for health benefits and wages so low that unionized companies are forced to compromise away quality health benefits in order to maintain living wages for their members.
In recent contract negotiations, the United Food and Commercial Workers found themselves in the untenable position of having to agree that part time workers at Stop & Shop wait 2 years before having access to the company’s health care coverage – this was up from 6 months. Why? Because companies like Walmart have established this precedent and to remain competitive, other companies like Stop & Shop are being forced to follow suit at the expense of their workers and communities. But the problem is not just in the service sector. A union negotiator from the United Auto Workers said that only 1 out of 46 of his remaining union contracts still provides its workers with 100% health coverage.
In another example of how unions are challenged in attempts to put brakes on the race to the bottom, the data from the Office of Legislative Research clearly identifies a trend by unionized companies to hire more part time workers - the corporations attempts to get around providing health coverage since unions have so far been able to continue to secure full time worker benefits. Yet for non-unionized companies their workers on HUSKY are mostly full time workers, thus revealing that unions continue to provide protections for workers that must be maintained and bolstered.
The labor movement’s ongoing commitment to social justice, healthcare and equality make them a powerful force in the movement for universal health care in CT. Because union membership is so diverse and their underlying philosophy such as it is, interfacing and connecting with faith based and community groups is an ongoing and natural progression that CEO facilitates.
