Union Strike

I would like to talk a little bit about the GM UAW strike that went on today. At 11:00 a.m. this morning, 73,000 UAW workers went on strike because both parties (Management and the Union) could not come to terms on several key issues. Their contract had originally ended on the 14th but after 9 days of not seeing eye to eye, the Union decided to pull out the big guns and coordinate a strike. CNN has an article discussing the most current events.
This particular issue really chaps my you know what!! The main reason both parties cannot come to terms is the incurred health care costs. GM wants to shift 51 Billion in future health care costs for retirees and current work force. Between the two, there is a little over 340,000. Now I work for a municipality, the City has several Unions, and believe me, the weekly cost for a worker on the average family plan pays about $15.00 a week. I am willing to bet that the GM workers are paying very similar cost if not less! The thing that gets my goat is that these workers have no idea what millions of other working americans are paying for their health care.
I went on to the National Coalition of Health Care to get some figures on what people are paying for Health care.
"Premiums for employer-based health insurance rose by 7.7 percent in 2006. Small employers saw their premiums, on average, increase 8.8 percent. Firms with less than 24 workers, experienced an increase of 10.5 percent (3)
The annual premium that a health insurer charges an employer for a health plan covering a family of four averaged $11,500 in 2006. Workers contributed nearly $3,000, or 10 percent more than they did in 2005 (3).The annual premiums for family coverage significantly eclipsed the gross earnings for a full-time, minimum-wage worker ($10,712)".
If that employer covers 80% of what the insurance company charges (My brother is in a similar situation) then the cost for the coverage is for the employee to pay. 80% of $11,500 is $9,200, leaving $2,300 for the employee which comes out to be a little over $44.00 a week! That is 3 times what the Union worker pays. Does the UAW Union think that increased health care costs are a myth? Do they honestly think that there workers are exempt from these cost that the rest of the country is dealing with? It is just frustrating to read stuff like this because unfortunatley it comes down to money, and in the long run, the consumer of a GM product will pay for it anyway!
This concludes my rant of the week!