Cubs Get Soaked Trying To Avoid O-Care Mandate

[kpete]

Last edited Sat Aug 23, 2014, 11:03 AM - Edit history (1)

Cubs Get Soaked Trying To Avoid O-Care Mandate

The hugely controversial rain-interrupted Cubs game this week was cast in a new light Thursday when the Chicago Sun-Times reported that the Cubs had slashed grounds crew hours to keep them under 30 hours a week to avoid paying health benefits under Obamacare.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/chicago-cubs-field-workers-obamacare-tarp-disaster

[etherealtruth]

1. The really sick part of this ....

... is their willingness to pay huge salaries to players and management .... and are worried about a "few" dollars that are comparatively a drop in the bucket for comparatively low waged workers.

It is greed and it is disgusting

[Hotler]

4. Greed yes, but mostly selfishness. n/t

[liberalmike27]

28. Heaven forbid

Giving up a few bucks to pay salaries and perks like health care, for the employees that don't make tens of millions a year. It's be ashamed for a guy making ten million, to make only 9.5 million, so they could get health care, that is if it even cost a half million, which it probably won't.

[liberal N proud]

6. Greed and politics

They don't want to comply with a social leaning program.

[etherealtruth]

7. Yep n/t

[pscot]

2. The Cubs are the longest running scam

in U.S. history; impersonating a professional baseball team.

[LloydS of New London]

3. I'll let Nelson speak for me on this one

[Punkingal]

5. I think the Cubs owner is a notorious right-wing jerk.

I could be mistaken, but I think I read that somewhere.

[Dont call me Shirley]

8. An Ayn Randian or Friedian, perhaps?

[Punkingal]

10. Yep...

Look at this:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-08-12/the-cubs-billionaire-owners-use-wrigley-field-for-a-gop-fundraiser

[catbyte]

12. Yeah, he funded that "study" about Obama which was actually a racist hit

piece. Someone leaked it & they had to backpedal like mad. Cretins.

[Cha]

41. Joe Ricketts. Yep.

[treestar]

44. I wonder if this even saves them money

Is it a gesture. Telling they didn't provide health insurance in the first place.

[Uben]

9. Don't patronize baseball teams until they change

That's all you can do as an individual. I stopped going to baseball and football games back in the eighties. It was my protest to outrageous salaries and ticket prices. I'll never go to another game...ever. If you do, it's like saying you are okay with the status quo.

I live near Dallas, and although the Cowboys really suck, Jerry Jones will never see a dime from me and I do not watch the game on TV either. I don't care about being a part of what's happening to the sport of football or any other professional sports games. When admission got so high us po folk couldn't afford the tickets, I began my boycott. I could care less if a sports team wins or loses, they aren't sending me a check, so why should I give them money?

[pangaia]

19. Can't argue with you there.

Since I really love baseball, I'm lucky to have 5 minor league teams within 40-90 minutes. $5.50- $12.00. I go to maybe 30 games during the season.

[A Simple Game]

25. There are also college, high school, pee wee, and T-ball games.

All of which will probably provide more excitement and entertainment than a Major league game. Especially pee wee and T-ball.

There really is no excuse to support over hyped pro games and over paid players and owners.

Edit to add: Sorry I forgot to mention the local softball leagues, both female and male, slow and fast pitch.

[pangaia]

26. We also have Little League and all those other

leagues for those younger kids.
PLUS.. a summer college league 20 minutes away, pretty low level.. not like the Cape Cod league. but it is baseball..

[A Simple Game]

27. I have watched quite a few little league games, there is more action in

a normal inning of little league than there is in an entire major league game. I could never understand why anyone would like to watch a no hitter.

The games around here are free, no parking fees, and you can bring your own food and non-alcoholic drinks. So other than transportation a very cheap form of entertainment.

Not to mention that soccer and football will be starting soon at the local colleges.

[pangaia]

37. I actually enjoy the tension of a no-hitter.

[Jamaal510]

34. It's actually

"I live near Dallas, and although the Cowboys really suck, Jerry Jones will never see a dime from me and I do not watch the game on TV either."

even more of a reason to not go to any games when your local team is doing bad.

[LynneSin]

11. I hope the Cubs never win a World Series until that owner sells the team

And if the players were smart they would boycott playing until the owner takes care of the little people. The team is in the basement of the NL Central division and I think it would show solidarity as a team.

[etherealtruth]

13. +10000

[GoCubsGo]

30. This third-generation fan hates that I agree with you here.

Unfortunately, as long as those Ricketts trash are making money off of them, they aren't going anywhere.

[cate94]

14. Sickening

I've been a Cubs fan for years, but apparently I am going to have to rethink my loyalty. The fact that they currently suck makes it just a bit easier.

[allan01]

15. that loophole needs to be changed

and to think the as beat them 8-3 in their last game . need list of businness to boycott hwo pull this nonsense.

[world wide wally]

16. Go White Sox

[George II]

17. That is REALLY a stretch!

[Chasstev365]

18. As a life long Cub fan, I'm embarressed, but not shocked.

Last edited Sat Aug 23, 2014, 02:08 PM - Edit history (1)

Tom Ricketts' father is an Uber-Rightwinger!

[City Lights]

20. Fuck the Cubs right-wing owner. nt

[PatrynXX]

21. I'm gonna get my nose removed

but I'll post it in a board where the owners are Cubs fans. This in Illinois were everyones great. Maybe the owners aren't from the state

[GoCubsGo]

32. They are from Omaha.

They claim to be "life-long Cubs fans." I call bullshit.

[sorefeet]

22. Is baseball a tax free

organization like the NFL??

[oberliner]

35. Not anymore

Major League Baseball also used to enjoy the same tax-exempt protection, but in 2007 it chose to surrender that status in part because as the salary information above illustrates, tax-exempt, non-profit status requires you to report the salaries of your top executives. MLB decided that protecting that information from the public was more important than escaping taxes.

http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2012/10/18/did-you-know-that-the-nfl-is-a-tax-exempt-nonprofit/

[surrealAmerican]

23. Kudos to the Sun Times for finding the connection here.

Good journalism should not be so rare.

[Stellar]

24. The Cubs or their Owners?

Chicago Sun-Times reported that the Cubs had slashed grounds crew hours to keep them under 30 hours a week to avoid paying health benefits under Obamacare.

[GoCubsGo]

29. Their scumbag owners.

And, ultimately, that shitstain, Bud Selig, who dictated who could or could not own the team. There were at least half dozen people/groups who wanted to buy them. Some of them, like Mark Cuban, were flat-out told to get lost. The Cubs got stuck with the worst of the worst of the group that remained--the low-life Ricketts family.

[Stellar]

31. hmmm, I thought so.

[GoCubsGo]

33. Laura Ricketts, excepted.

She's a Dem, and not like her dad and brothers. I don't think she has much sway in matters related to the Cubs.

[former9thward]

36. Obama care had nothing to do with this game.

The link conveniently leaves out that the tarp was rolled out backwards and that was the reason the field got soaked. Another attempt to make everything in life political.

[riderinthestorm]

38. Actually it probably is still related.

If there's insufficient staffing to have rolled it correctly in the first place from the short work weeks. ..

I fairness I doubt though the 30 hour thing I'd related to Obamacare. Many many corporations had already implemented that policy long before the ACA was passed

[tammywammy]

42. Plus, no rain was forecasted

That's why the morning crew went home.

[GeorgeGist]

39. Cub's are perennial losers.

Obama's a ChiSox fan.

[Warren DeMontague]

43. True. Although Wrigley is normally an awesome place to watch the Cubs invariably lose.

The lovely and historic park deserves to be well taken care of, by people who are likewise well taken care of.

[Cha]

40. Darn Karma! Damn

schadenfreude!

Miserly Cheapskates for the Workers.. Rethink Obamacare

"Inefficiencies" Uh huh.. tell us more.. Need one of those Gene Wilder/Willy Wonka graphics here..

“There have been organizational changes. Every organization, whether it’s baseball or corporate, is always continuing to evaluate inefficiencies, and obviously that translates to ours," the spokesman, Julian Green said. “We’re no different than any organization trying to gain efficiencies. However, our efforts to manage costs had nothing to do with the episode on Tuesday night.”

One of the comments pointed out that Joe Ricketts owns the Cubs and I think he would do it just to spite President Obama but hurting his workers instead.

From your link, kpete..

"Earlier this week, the Chicago Cubs grounds crew experienced a disaster. As rain poured onto Wrigley Field, they were unable to cover the playing surface with a tarp in time. They were booed. The game was called. Because of the mismanagement, their opponents, the San Francisco Giants, protested the game after it had been called as a win for the Cubs. They succeeded. It was the first successful protest in Major League Baseball in 28 years, according to Deadspin."