WORKERS MUST FIGHT BUSH

MOVE TO CUT OVERTIME
 

By Edward Gorham

President

Maine AFL-CIO
 

At the time of this holiday season I want first to pause to wish all brothers and sisters in the labor movement a  and a happy and prosperous New Year.

However, as we all know, the year ahead is both a threat and an opportunity. Once again the holiday season arrives with the threat that many thousands of workers in Maine and the nation will exhaust their unemployment benefits as the Republican controlled Congress goes home without providing the desperately needed extension of benefits. This inaction in the face of 3.3 million jobs being lost under the Bush Administration and a current unemployment level of close to 10 million workers is simply inexcusable.

Continue to Fight

In the weeks ahead we will continue the fight for both an extension of benefits and for long overdue improvements in the unemployment compensation system itself.

Congress in the holiday season a year ago tardily, and grudgingly, approved extensions of unemployment benefits, but millions either have exhausted their benefits or were denied them because they earn too little or work too few hours. As a result, official unemployment numbers understate the total number of unemployed, underemployed and discouraged men and women.
 

All Out Attack

It is no secret that President Bush and his henchmen immediately upon taking over the government of the United States launched an all out attack on workers, unions and working families. This attack continues unabated today and will continue every day of 2004 until all workers, union and non-union, unite in the solidarity of their determination to get rid of George Bush and take back the government of the United States.

The failure to create jobs is a serious indictment against this administration. But it is also only half the story; those lucky enough to still have work are at risk from numerous workplace initiatives that have only slowly begun to get public attention.
 

Impacts 8 Million

The Labor Department plans to eliminate overtime pay for an estimated 8 million employees -- nurses, police, fire fighters, and more -- who rely on it to make ends meet. The administration is simultaneously pushing a "compensatory time" proposal that could erode the 40-hour workweek. Democrats in the House are unified in their opposition – including Maine Congressmen Tom Allen and Mike Michaud.

At our November Convention Karen Ackerman, AFL-CIO Political Director who is heading up the Labor 2004 Program, made it clear that the fight to preserve overtime for millions of workers will be one of the key issues that will come up first in the coming election year.

The fight centers around language that was attached to the huge year-end spending bill to prevent the Bush Administration from imposing new rules on overtime. On December 8, after holding the roll call vote “open” half the night while they twisted Republican arms, the GOP finally in the early morning hours managed to pass a $373 billion spending package through the House. The measure passed without the provision to kill the Bush “end overtime” administrative action slated to take effect early in 2004.

Attacks Workers

“There is a disturbing pattern here,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. “Employers are hiring fewer workers here in the U.S. and working them longer. And now the Bush Administration is trying to make it cheaper for them to work employees even longer with this proposed change in overtime rules. Bush has attacked worker protections every chance he has gotten.”

This appropriation measure is just loaded with thousands of personal “pork” projects in its 1,182 pages and the smell of this rancid pork is just now beginning to turn taxpayer’s stomachs. Despite pressure from Senate Republican leadership, the Senate adjourned without passing the measure. The battle will begin in the Senate toward the end of January.

Not Only Spending

In addition to spending $373 billion the appropriation measure is loaded with decisions on federal policies that favor the Bush position on such issues as overtime pay and mass media ownership that would allow networks to own more TV stations than they do today. The measure also under finances veterans, schools and other programs.

Rep. David Obey, D-Wisconsin. Summed it up by saying “The bottom line is this is a bad bill.”

Thousands of Maine workers are slowly waking up to the importance of the new overtime regulations proposed by the U.S. Department of Labor  – slowly because there has been a regrettable lack of attention paid to the matter by the media in Maine.

Carrot and Stick

The DOL is trying to deceive workers by offering a little carrot along with a big stick.. The “carrot” part of the proposed change is that the change would raise the ceiling under which all workers are entitled to overtime from $155 a week ($170 for professionals) to $425 a week. This part of the current regulations has not been altered since 1975 and there is no doubt that this change is needed. It would entitle (a DOL-estimate) 1.3 million more American workers to time-and-a-half pay after 40 hours a week.

The big stick that slams more than 8 million workers comes in the rest of the proposed change.

Depend on Overtime

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act administered by the DOL, some 80 million workers now qualify for overtime pay. Millions of these workers depend on this cash overtime pay to make ends meet. These working families need this money, especially in this current economic recession, to pay bills for child care, prescription drugs, and health care and, yes, even for rent and food.

The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) made a study of the issue and estimates that 2.5 million salaried employees and 5.5 million hourly workers will lose their right to overtime pay if the proposed rules are adopted. They estimate, at a minimum, there will be a net of 8 million workers who will get blind sided by this devious and devastating change and lose the overtime pay they now need and count on getting.

Many Occupations

The workers who will lose out include those in dozens and dozens of occupations ranging from cooks and construction workers to firemen and health care professionals.

What is equally disturbing about the DOL proposal is that it is a model of obfuscation. Even a labor lawyer couldn’t read it and tell you with any certainty who is likely in the end to get overtime. If this change takes effect, a mass of lawsuits is inevitable. However, what we do know with certainty is that no individual employee is going to have the resources to prevail in a lawsuit against Wal-Mart or any other large employer.

Battle Is On
The battle lines have been drawn and the fight to keep overtime is on. We ask all brothers and sisters to visit our web site at www.maineaflcio.org to stay informed and to participate in asking both Maine senators to oppose the spending bill as it is now written.

The threats to workers and working families in the coming year are many but there is also the golden opportunity to throw out of office the most anti-labor, anti-worker President and administration of the last half century.