Unions Remain Hesitant to Embrace Obamacare

With all the talk about the Affordable Care Act this week, there have been surprisingly few mentions of Big Labor. In fact, as Politico reported earlier in the week, President Obama's labor allies have been mostly silent publicly on the issue and have generally been unwilling to help the Administration with the rollout and enrollment efforts.

As we reported a few months ago, many unions have been critical of the Affordable Care Act's impact on multi-employer union health and welfare funds and have been in discussions with the Administration to lobby for changes to the law. Those efforts have been unsuccessful so far and likely have contributed to the lackluster support of Obamacare by unions. Given the publicity struggles the Obama Administration has had recently over the website and enrollment periods, this lack of support from many labor unions has been a noticeable omission. It remains to be seen whether this issue affects Big Labor's long-term relationship with Democrats in general and the Obama Administration in particular. Stay tuned.