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TagsBY GINA G. SCALA
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
Nearly one full week after President Barack Obama won a second term, American workers are being held captive; this as millions struggle to pick up the pieces left behind by Hurricane Sandy.
Papa John’s founder and CEO John Schnatter said Obama’s re-election victory means there is no hope of repealing his health care reform. His solution is for employees to pay the cost by reducing hours, angering Twitter and Facebook users who are threatening to boycott, Digital Journal reported.
About a third of Papa John’s employees are on the company’s health insurance plan, and the rising cost of health insurance has prevented the number for hitting 100 percent, Schnatter said.
"The good news is 100 percent of the population is going to have health insurance. We're all going to pay for it," he said, estimating the new law would cost the business $5 million to $8 million annually.
The Affordable Care Act calls for employers with more than 50 workers to provide full-time employees (those working 30 hours or more a week) health insurance. Schnatter told the audience at Edison State College's Collier County campus that some franchise owners will have to reduce hours for employees so they don’t incur the higher costs.
“That's probably what's going to happen," he said. "It's common sense. That's what I call lose-lose.”
Unfortunately, Schnatter isn’t alone in his thinking. Just last week, a coal producer owned by an opponent of the president’s energy policies announced it will lay off nearly 160 workers at Illinois and Utah mines.
In a statement to the Associated Press Nov. 9, Ohio-based Murray Energy Corp. said 102 workers at its West Ridge Mine in Utah and 54 at its Galatia, Ill.-based underground mine will be laid off. The CEO blames Obama for a “war on coal,” the Ventura County Star reported.
“The American people have made their choice,” Robert Murray, the company’s chairman, CEO and founder, told about 50 employees Nov. 7 during a prayer. “The takers outvoted the producers.”
Murray asked for God's forgiveness "for the decisions that we are cost forced to make to preserve the very existence of any of the enterprises that you have helped us build,” according to the Ventura County Star.
In his statement Nov. 9, Murray said the coal industry "is being destroyed.” He said that coal production in the U.S. could sink by hundreds of millions of tons. He predicts that under the Obama administration many U.S. coal-fired power plants will be forced offline by 2014, the Ventura County Star reported.
Guess if that's the way businesses are going to act about it, then so be it. Seems like all that want is to pay less to their employees, ask for more unpaid hours from them or else, then deny any benefits to their staff.