WE DID IT! - Improvements Negotiated to Excise Tax
CWA leadership, locals and our members have led the opposition to the excise tax. From the start, CWA leaders made it clear that a tax on workers' health care was the wrong way to finance health care reform. We fought against this plan in the Senate and supported our friends in the House of Representatives who outlined better ways to finance health care reform. We supported Connecticut House Representative Joe Courtney in obtaining 190 signatures on a letter opposing the excise tax.Because of this work, organized labor has been "at the table" and President Cohen and other labor union leaders have spent many hours talking with President Obama and White House officials to work out ways to ease the negative impact of this tax on our members. At the same time these discussions were taking place, you were keeping the pressure on: first the House, then the Senate, and then back to the House.
All of this work set the stage for several days of continuous tri party bargaining and through these negotiations w
