News

A member asks: How are these state governments able to legislate changes to vesting schedules and formula calculations without someone challenging in a federal tax court hearing on defined benefit plan qualifications? Bob Patrician, a CWA research economist, answers.

A new study by the University of California's Berkeley Labor Center shows that non-union members would be equally hit by a health care excise tax.

CWA President Larry Cohen and other union presidents have been in marathon discussions at the White House this week to find a fair way to finance health care reform. Cohen and leaders from about 10 unions plus the AFL-CIO and Change to Win met with President Obama and White House staff several times this week, with sessions lasting for many hours and past midnight.

Leading economists and 190 Members of Congress agree: the proposed tax on health care benefits is bad public policy that will hurt millions of middle-income and working Americans. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, Representative Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) and economists Lawrence Mishel and Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute debunked the myths that supporters have been spreading about the excise tax during a media teleconference Jan. 6.