Wednesday, September 11, 2013 Tryon Daily Bulletin / The World’s Smallest Daily Newspaper
Letter to the Editor
Response to opinion To the editor: This letter is in response to the letter from Mr. Kachadoorian in the Sept. 4, 2013 edition of the [Tryon Daily Bulletin] paper. In his letter concerning Obamacare and its negative effects on the economy, I found several oversimplifications and some incorrect information. First, Mr. Kachadoorian’s comparison of jobs and benefits in the past and what they are like today is very accurate. However, I disagree that the shift from full time employment to part time employment for many Americans is not a result of the enactment of Obamacare as he states. If we look at history, we can see that there were other causes. In the late 1990’s Walmart began experimenting with reducing their full time work force and replacing them with part-time workers. The main reason for this was so that
these employees would not be entitled to pensions, 401Ks, paid vacations and health care benefits. In an article in the New York Times during this time period, the senior vice president of human resources at Walmart was quoted as saying Walmart had an internal goal of making 60 percent of their current work force part-time employees. In many large companies in the United Letter States, their executive to the groups watch the new Editor management tools that Walmart employs, and if they are successful, these companies will imitate the practice. I worked for a Fortune 100 company during this time period and saw the same actions being taken in our company. A study was made to determine what jobs within the company could be managed by part-time workers and then these positions started to be filled with part timers. This shifting of full time jobs to part time employees is growing
throughout American industry. I recently had a discussion with a former employee of BMW in Greer and was shocked to learn that this practice is now being done at their US facility. Even highly profitable companies like BMW are adopting this practice to make even more money at the expense of their workers. I think we would all agree that BMW should be profitable enough to pay their workers a fair salary and provide benefits. So as you can see, the push to move employees from full-time to part time started way before Obama was elected and before Obamacare was passed. I will agree that Obamacare has probably pushed some of the few companies that were not practicing “part-timing” to now make the move. Second, Mr. Kachadoorian states that our health care system is one of the best. I do not know how you can consider it one of
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the best when it does not currently cover over 30 percent of our citizens. I agree that for the 70 percent who do have health care coverage the system works pretty well, but even with this group, the United States pays more for health care per person than any other country. I too think that there are many flaws in the new health care system, but it is a start. I also believe that the health care bill could have much been better if it had been a truly bipartisan effort. It seems in today’s political environment compromise is a dirty word on Capitol Hill. Yet compromise is how most of our best laws were conceived – that is how our country and our wonderful constitution were conceived. Republicans and Democrats alike all need to remember they are Americans first, and work for the people – not their party. - Robert W. Quattlebaum, Tryon