NYT: Starbucks Workers Protest Rise in Health Premiums (will double it as nation debates health care

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/starbucks-workers-protest-rise-in-health-premiums/

August 18, 2009, 7:30 am

By A. G. Sulzberger


Mario Tama/Getty Images

At a picket organized by the Industrial Workers of the World, Starbucks employees and their supporters protested a rise in their out-of-pocket health care expenses.
Updated, 2 p.m. | Saying it spends nearly as much on health insurance for its workers as it does on coffee, Starbucks recently announced that it would increase the amount that eligible employees need to contribute to keep their health care coverage.

On Monday evening, newly unionized Starbucks baristas gathered at the company’s regional headquarters in Manhattan to protest the move, which they said would effectively double the cost of their health insurance.

The change would increase the cost of the most basic plan to $20 from $12.50 each paycheck and the annual sign-up cost to $200 from $100, according to Liberte Locke, a barista who has been active in unionization efforts with the Industrial Workers of the World.

“If they’re going to charge us this amount, our pay needs to increase,” she said. She added that a growing number of employees were ineligible for the health insurance because they worked fewer than 20 hours a week.

A Starbucks spokesman said in a statement that the protest was the work of “a small group of people with an outside agenda aimed at promoting itself and its interest.”

FULL story at link.

I'm afraid that's a big reason why we're in this mess.
The unions only worried about who would pay for insurance.
They did not worry about why it costs so much.
They did not ask, What can we do about the overpriced doctors,
hospitals, insurance companies, drug companies...?