The Latest Corporate Maneuver To Screw Workers - Dump The Spouse!

With a tip of the crown to one of my tweeps, we find that UPS is starting a new attack on workers which is going to put the screw to a lot of families:

In a memo addressed to employees, U.P.S. said, “Limiting plan eligibility is one way to manage
ongoing health care costs, now and into the future, so that we can continue to provide affordable coverage for our employees.”

The memo also estimated that about 33,000 spouses were covered under its insurance plan for white-collar employees and that “about 15,000 of these would have health care coverage available through their own employers.”

In explaining its move — which was first reported by Kaiser Health News and USA Today — U.P.S. told employees, “Since the Affordable Care Act requires employers to provide affordable coverage, we believe your spouse should be covered by their own employer — just as U.P.S. has a responsibility to offer coverage to you, our employee.”

And it's not just the corporations. The public sector is also being similarly attacked:

Large employers like Xerox and Teva Pharmaceuticals already impose surcharges for spousal coverage. And some cities, like Terre Haute, Ind., decided to follow what many of its private corporations were doing, by adopting a “spousal carve-out” so that working spouses would not be covered under its health plans.

The corporations are blaming Obamacare for these moves, but the article goes on to report that the cost is minimal and that this is just another way for the corporations to increase their profit margin.

This kind of move will really hurt working families, especially if one or both spouses are working in a low-paying part-time job. While individual coverage is obviously less than family coverage, two individual costs would far exceed the cost of a family coverage. If a person is working a low paying job, health care coverage would eat up a large part of their check. In fact, the cost might become so high that it would be more cost effective for the family if the lesser paid spouse quit his or her job.

Needless to say, the cut in income would be devastating for the family. But it would also go to further slow the economic recovery and very possibly put us back in a downward spin.

Janna Ryan Delivers!

by Jeff Simpson

Paul (R- Wall St.) and Janna( Lobbyist UPS)  Ryan make a great couple.   They have many common interests.  Apparently one of  the main things they have in common, is that they both like to destroy middle class America as we know it!  

 Paul Ryan’s wife, Janna Little Ryan, is not exactly the typical stay at home Mom that is portrayed by Mr Ryan . Until their marriage she was a successful tax attorney and by the time she was 30 a high-priced lobbyist. Mrs. Ryan worked for Big Pharmaceuticals, Big Oil, and health care  corporations. Interestingly she was also a key lobbyist for UPS.  Her lobbying team was paid $220,000 in 1998 to lobby against the interests of the US  Postal Service.

 UPS spent over $5 million lobbying against its main competitor. Janna Little Ryan lobbied congress to not allow the Postal Service to expand the services it offers. UPS at this time initiated a smear campaign against the Postal Service by among other things sending every member of congress a box filled with anti Postal Service editorials.

Thank God, Paul Ryan did not win the election....what the heck would have been Janna's pet cause as second lady of the US?  Clubbing baby seals?  Recognizing bully's as a protected class?

The former Big Oil, Big Pharma, Tobacco industry lobbyist found great success in lobbying and even used her position to introduce her Congressional candidate boyfriend to the world of taking big money donations and all expenses paid  trips from Corporations.  

So when you hear about all of the problems with the Post Office and how we may no longer have Saturday Delivery and the thousands of local postal jobs that will cost this country, remember that Janna Little Ryan's goal is being realized!  

” (Janna) Ryan was a part of the lobbying effort that defeated a postal reform bill which was designed to make the U.S. Postal Service more profitable. The ripples of her work in defeating this bill were felt earlier this month, when the Postal Service defaulted on payments to the U.S. Treasury.” (1)

Great rundown of the facts behind the USPS "crisis" here!