He said that when Schwarzenegger announced his plan, Burd publicly said its requirement that employers spend at least 4% of payroll on healthcare was too low.
"When you get Safeway going out saying it should be more, they're chopping our knees off," Hauge said.
But Burd said that the climbing cost of healthcare is an "emergency," adding that by 2015 costs will eat up 22% of the country's gross domestic product, damaging corporate competitiveness worldwide.
"By next year, the average Fortune 500 firm will have a healthcare bill that exceeds its net income," Burd's coalition says in its statement of principles.
Burd's political efforts have drawn derision from Safeway workers, who accuse him of hypocrisy.
That is because the company, which is based in Pleasanton, Calif., and other grocers are in a dispute with unions over how long new employees must wait to acquire health benefits, among other issues. Hourly employees wait a year or more; their families wait 30 months.
"This is coming from the guy who eliminated healthcare" for thousands of workers in Southern California, said Michael Shimpock of SG&A Campaigns, a Pasadena media and political consulting firm hired by the United Food and Commercial Workers union to speak about the negotiations.
"I would be very dubious before I would accept" the coalition's position at face value, he said.
The coalition says its members employ more than 1.7 million workers, and 18 of the companies are among the Fortune 500's biggest firms.
"I think we're going to find that as the debate gets louder and because the cost associated with healthcare can't continue to climb the way it has, you're going to see more employers get engaged," said Ed Hanway, chairman of Cigna Corp., which provides insurance for Safeway's managers and salaried workers.
jordan.rau@latimes.com
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Comparing potential prescriptions for healthcare coverage
A new business coalition intends to lobby for changes to the healthcare system. Some of those changes are included in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed healthcare overhaul and those of state legislative leaders. A comparison:
Coalition to Advance Healthcare Reform
* Health insurance required for everyone
* Subsidized insurance for those with low incomes
* Preexisting conditions covered
* Incentives for healthy behavior and prevention
