There is an antique saying -- no less true for its antiquity -- that you need to be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it. This came to mind when I read a recent report about what is happening at a Pennsylvania college.
One of President Obama's most loyal -- not to say fawning -- constituencies clearly is academia. His rate of support among collegiate faculty and administrators surely approaches near-unanimity on the typical campus. This is why the news about the Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) is so richly ironic. CCAC has just announced that because of ObamaCare, it will have to slash the hours of 400 of its employees, about half of whom are adjunct instructors. This is because under new law, companies and other organizations employing 50 or more employees are required to provide full health care insurance (at high cost, because of a host of new mandates the law includes) for all employees working 30 or more hours a week. This means that employers have a tremendous incentive -- indeed, virtually a gun at their heads -- to either cut hours for employees to under 30 hours per week or eliminate workers outright (by outsourcing, offshoring, contracting out, and automating), or to keep the employees under 50 by simply not expanding.
This has led numerous private companies start taking precisely those actions -- including Abbot Labs, Applebee's, Boston Scientific, Covidien, Dana Holding, Darden Restaurants, Kinetic Concepts, Kroger, Lockheed-Martin, Medtronic, New Energy, Papa John's Pizza, Smith & Nephew, Stryker, TANCOA Janitorial, and Welch Allyn. For example, major restaurant chains such as Olive Garden and Red Lobster are already moving employees to under 30 hours a week. Boston Scientific has said that it will lay off 1,400 workers and shift production to China.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
