Buttigieg Claim ‘Medicare For All’ Would Erode Union Benefits Throws Gasoline On Nevada Fire
Labor union bosses have gone to war with each other and the Democratic candidates over Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All proposal, which some claim would hurt union members by reducing the quality of their benefits.
Culinary Workers Union Local 114 in Las Vegas, Nevada issued two political flyers addressing the Democratic candidates’ stands on union issues. One flyer approved of the healthcare platforms of Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar and Tom Steyer.
The local’s one-page handout claims that the proposals of these four would preserve the healthcare benefits of culinary workers. It also claimed that the Medicare for All plan proposed by Bernie Sanders during his 2016 presidential bid would undermine union members benefits.
While not as harsh with Elizabeth Warren, who adopted Bernie’s Medicare For All plan for her 2020 campaign, the flyer intimated the she, too, would undermine unionized culinary workers’ healthcare coverage.
The Culinary Workers Union represents 60,000 culinary workers in the state of Nevada, the site of the next clash between Democratic aspirants. The union has exerted a great deal of influence in the Nevada caucuses in the past.
“Would End Culinary Healthcare”
While the first flyer was a political scorecard that laid out the union’s interpretation of the positions of all the candidates on major issues, a second handout lumped Sanders and Warren in with the Republicans as forces that would deprive culinary workers of the benefits they have.
The second flyer did not name Sanders and Warren, but it was inescapable who the flyer was aimed at, because of the narrative offered by the first handout. The second flyer declared:
Trump and his Republicans are actively trying to destroy healthcare for working families, but presidential candidates suggesting forcing millions of hard working people to give up their healthcare creates unnecessary division between workers, and will give us four more years of Trump.
The first flyer claimed that Biden, Buttigieg, Klobuchar and Steyer would “Protect Culinary Healthcare.” All these candidates, with the exception of Buttigieg, would expand Obamacare with a public option, according to the union. The first flyer clams Buttigieg supported an optional Medicare for All Program (Medicare for All Who Want It).
The first handout states that Bernie Sanders would “End Culinary Healthcare” with his Medicare for All plan. It also stated that Elizabeth Warren would “Replace culinary healthcare after 3-year transition or end of collective bargaining agreements.”
Now that Bernie Sanders is the front runner, his history as a self-identified Socialist who caucuses with the Democrats in Congress is being used against him by more moderate candidates.
Buttigieg Rebutted by Airline Workers Union
Former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who came in second in the New Hampshire’s First-in-the-Nation Primary, has staked out his position that Medicare for All is bad for union workers. Union workers are one of the major voting blocs in the Democratic Party, and have been the backbone of the party since the 19th Century.
“There are 14 million union workers in America who have fought hard for strong, employer-provided health benefits,” Buttigieg claimed on a Twitter tweet. “Medicare for All Who Want It protects their plans and union members’ freedom to choose the coverage that’s best for them.”
Among the supporters of Medicare for All are Association of Flight Attendants President Sara Nelson, who is leaning towards supporting Sanders. In a tweet responding to Buttigieg, Nelson said:
This is offensive and dangerous. Stop perpetuating this gross myth. Not every union member has union healthcare plans that protect them. Those that do have it, have to fight like hell to keep it. If you believe in Labor then you’d understand an injury to one is an injury to all.Wednesday, arguing that he was perpetuating a “gross myth” about union workers’ health care.
Union Benefits
AFL-CIO-affiliated Union Plus claims that “92% of union workers have job-related health coverage versus 68% of non-union workers.”
Union Plus is part of Union Privilege, which was a non-profit created by the AFL-CIO 34 years ago to provide to provide consumer benefits to union members via Union Plus.
The AFL-CIO has 13 million members. The union endorsed Hillary Clinton for president in 2016.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, union members pay less for their health care benefits than do non-union workers, and have better coverage. In the area of pensions, whereas only 15% of non-union workers have 401(k) defined benefit retirement plans, pensions that pay out a guaranteed income and are free of the fluctuations of the stock market that make the value of defined benefit plans wax and wane, two-thirds of union workers have defined benefit plans.
