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Tens of Thousands of Workers Protest Bush Overtime Proposal

from aflcio.org, July 2, 2003

TAKE ACTION

Send an e-mail to President Bush telling him to stop attacking overtime pay: http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/otpayj1

BACKGROUND

In the past two weeks alone, more than 62,000 workers have sent letters telling the U.S. Department of Labor not to abolish their rights to overtime pay-the most mail the agency has received on any similar issue in a decade. Those letters are among the more than 290,000 letters sent since late March to the Labor Department, members of Congress and President George W. Bush protesting attacks on the 40-hour workweek. Bush administration proposals to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) could strip more than 8 million employees of their right to overtime after 40 hours of work a week, according to a new Economic Policy Institute (EPI) study, affecting far more workers than the 644,000 workers the Labor Department estimates will lose overtime.

The Labor Department's proposed changes-which could take effect as early as this fall-were announced in March, but the department held no public hearings in advance of the June 30 comment deadline.

Marking the June 30 deadline, activists and workers rallied at the Labor Department in Washington, D.C., to protest the attack on the 40-hour workweek. The workers took to the streets after the Department of Labor advised the rally sponsors that a previously reserved Labor Department auditorium was unavailable.

Among those at the rally: Bob Adams, a bakery worker at Rainbow Foods in Roseville, Minn., and a member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 789. Adams currently earns between $3,500 and $4,000 annually for approximately 300 hours of overtime. Under the proposed changes, Adams-who spends the majority of his work time on the production line-could be reclassified by his employer as exempt from overtime pay because a quarter of his time goes to administrative duties.

Like Adams, anyone making more than $22,100 a year could be denied overtime under the proposed changes if they are classified as professional, administrative or executive employees exempt from federal overtime rules. Emergency medical technicians, cooks, social workers and police officers are among the 8 million workers who could be reclassified and lose overtime pay.

While a union contract protects Adams' overtime pay today, he said, 'We expect that at the next negotiation, the employer will say it can't compete if it has to pay us overtime.'

At the same time, says Adams, his employer could make full-time employees work longer hours without pay-and might be tempted to abolish the part-time jobs held by workers who desperately need the approximately 15 hours of weekly work they now receive.

Taking Away Overtime Will Kill Jobs

Speaking at the June 30 rally, AFL-CIO Secretary- Treasurer Richard Trumka said, 'Taking away overtime pay will kill jobs. The Bush administration is basically giving employers a manual on how to lay off workers and force the ones they keep to work double hours-for free.'

John Garrity, an International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers Local 3 member, is an electronics technician for the federal government in Philadelphia. He inspects electronics equipment on board Navy ships. To support his family, including a toddler and an infant, he works about 300 hours of overtime annually, as well as a second job at Home Depot. He would lose an estimated $4,000 in annual overtime under the proposed changes and, possibly, his part-time job, too.

'When I took my position, I was asked if I could work overtime, 90 percent of which is spent traveling and away from my family,' Garrity said. 'It's not fair to change the deal now.'

Communications Workers of America President Morton Bahr told the crowd that the Bush administration's attack on the 40-hour workweek should not surprise America's working families. 'In a speech earlier this year, the secretary of labor stated she wanted to make the [Labor Department] more company-friendly,' he said. 'But we don't need two Departments of Commerce....American workers will be mobilizing and making their voices heard at the ballot box.'

Unpredictable Work Schedules, Job Cutbacks

Many workers would face unpredictable work schedules and reduced pay because of an increased demand for extra hours for which employers would not have to compensate workers, the EPI report finds. 'As unemployment soars and America's workers struggle in a faltering economy, the Bush proposal would encourage employers to cut hiring and instead rely on fewer to do more work for less money,' says AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney. 'The proposal is an unjustified scorched earth strategy to decrease workers' paychecks and rights in the name of ‘updating' rules for the modern workplace.'

Says report co-author Ross Eisenbrey, EPI vice president and policy director: 'The administration's proposal would create, in effect, a massive subsidy to employers paid for by their employees.' Congressional Republicans also Attacking Workers' Right to Overtime

While the Bush administration is attacking overtime, anti-worker members of Congress have proposed five bills seeking to limit or restructure who qualifies for overtime.

H.R. 1119 in the House and S. 317 in the Senate could allow employers to save money at their employees' expense by having employees work overtime in exchange for a promise of time off (at some future, unspecified date under the employer's control), instead of paying workers the time-and-a-half overtime pay they're entitled to under current law.

Because of the efforts of working families who sent hundreds of thousands of faxes and made thousands of calls to their representatives, House Republicans canceled a scheduled June 5 vote on H.R. 1119 when they realized they did not have sufficient votes for passage. The other bills, which have not received hearing dates, would exempt some occupations from FLSA minimum wage and overtime protections.

TAKE ACTION

• Send an e-mail to President Bush telling him to stop attacking overtime pay: http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/otpayj1
• Read the EPI report on 8 million workers losing their right to overtime pay (the full report is available at www.epinet.org).