Bloodbath: 40,000 Union Members Leave AFL-CIO Over Obamacare

Katie Pavlich | September 03, 2013 7:40 AM

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka received some tough news on Labor Day: his union just lost 40,000 members over his support for Obamacare. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union officially decided to cut ties over the legislation, but it isn't for the reasons you may think.

"It is with regret but resolve that we have come to the point where the International Longshore and Warehouse Union must cut formal ties with the AFL-CIO," ILWU International President Robert McEllrath wrote in a letter to Trumka.

McEllrath expressed disappointment in Trumka for "going along to get along" and in the failure for the AFL-CIO to secure a government run single-payer healthcare system for its members.That's right, Obamacare just isn't liberal enough. McEllrath also ripped Trumka for his support of Obama's 40 percent Cadillac healthcare plan tax.

"President Obama ran on a platform that he would not tax medical plans and at the 2009 AFL-CIO convention, you stated that Labor would not stand for a tax on our benefits," the letter states. "The ILWU has also become increasingly frustrated with the Federation's moderate, overly compromising policy positions on such important matters as immigration, labor law reform, healthcare reform, and international labor issues."

Labor unions and President Obama have been taking beatings over Obamacare from all sides. Labor union leaders supported Obamacare before really knowing what was in it, resulting in massive taxes, layoffs and fewer working hours for the workers they represent.

In July, labor union leaders from the Teamsters, UNITE-HERE and UFCW sent a letter to Congress saying, "We have a problem; you need to fix it." Last week, Trumka finally openly admitted Obamacare needed to be tweaked and that mistakes were made in the legislation.

The reality is, an expensive government run single-payer will only result in higher taxes for workers and subpar medical care. If the Longshoreman are going to complain about a 40 percent Cadillac tax on medical plans, they better get realistic about the cost of a single-payer system.