By Michael Stratford
WASHINGTON — As Republicans formally take control of a new Congress this week, one of the party’s top priorities is pushing through a change to President Obama’s health care law that many colleges are cheering but that adjunct faculty have criticized.
Both the House and Senate are expected to vote, as early as Thursday, on legislation that would redefine full-time work under the Affordable Care Act as 40 hours a week, up from the current 30-hour threshold.
[…]Meanwhile, unions representing adjunct professors on Wednesday blasted the new efforts to change the 30-hour rule.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, called the proposed changes “wrong and unfair.”
“If the threshold for coverage is raised from 30 to 40 hours, these contingent workers will lose a hard-fought opportunity for employer health coverage,” Weingarten said in a statement. “Rather than embracing the spirit of the ACA to help expand health care for all working families, this unwarranted change would subvert the law’s intent to cover more Americans and close off a much-needed health insurance option.”
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