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Unions Put Overtime Fight on Network News
Several hundred union members, with an especially strong showing from CWA, turned the spotlight onto the overtime fight June 30 with a noontime rally in front of the Department of Labor that drew national media attention.
"These proposed changes aren't good for me, for my family or for the economy," said Tim O'Brien, a reporter in Albany, N.Y., and a member of TNG-CWA Local 31034. "I beg you, do not decide that my colleagues and I will no longer get overtime, will no longer have the money for a new car or a vacation. Do not decide that my colleagues and I will get to spend less time with our families."
The revisions the Bush administration wants to make in the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act would take the 40-hour week away from millions of people by letting employers label them "administrators," "executives," "professionals," or "sales" workers. Exempt employees would get no overtime pay yet be forced to work whatever hours their companies demand.
CWA President Morton Bahr told the crowd that the Department of Labor "has seriously and, I believe, deliberately" grossly underestimated the number of workers who would be hurt by the draconian changes.
"American workers should not be too surprised by this action," Bahr said. "In a speech earlier this year, the Secretary of Labor stated that she wanted to make the Labor Department more company-friendly. We already have a Department of Commerce. We don't need two."
The Economic Policy Institute, a research group, estimates that 8 million workers could lose the right to overtime pay under the Bush plan. CWA attorney Mark Wilson, who authored the union's 26-page response to the pending changes, predicts the numbers could be even higher because the language is so vague and ambiguous.
Until CWA and other unions began meeting to review the issue and initiate a media and activist campaign, the Bush administration was hoping to stealthily revise the law to fit its corporate agenda.
Originally, unions had planned to hold a forum inside the DOL building, and paid to rent the public auditorium. But after the news releases announcing the event were sent last week, the DOL pulled the plug. "I guess they don't want us calling attention to this Bush administration-sponsored pay cut," AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Rich Trumka said. "But their plan to silence you didn't work.
Trumka said unions will be taking the issue to communities across the country to ensure that all workers understand what they are about to lose.
"The 40-hour work week isn't just a perk," he said. "This is a law that we won by generations of workers fighting for decent hours and decent wages. The 40-hour week and overtime pay are the legacy of some of the greatest uprisings of workers in our history to demand that they be treated with respect. Now the Bush administration wants to take it away. They want to take you back to the 1920s and 30s. We're not going to let them."
A letter workers can send as is or edit to tell President Bush and members of Congress to stop the assault on overtime is available on the AFL-CIO site. Follow the links at www.aflcio.org.
"These proposed changes aren't good for me, for my family or for the economy," said Tim O'Brien, a reporter in Albany, N.Y., and a member of TNG-CWA Local 31034. "I beg you, do not decide that my colleagues and I will no longer get overtime, will no longer have the money for a new car or a vacation. Do not decide that my colleagues and I will get to spend less time with our families."
The revisions the Bush administration wants to make in the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act would take the 40-hour week away from millions of people by letting employers label them "administrators," "executives," "professionals," or "sales" workers. Exempt employees would get no overtime pay yet be forced to work whatever hours their companies demand.
CWA President Morton Bahr told the crowd that the Department of Labor "has seriously and, I believe, deliberately" grossly underestimated the number of workers who would be hurt by the draconian changes.
"American workers should not be too surprised by this action," Bahr said. "In a speech earlier this year, the Secretary of Labor stated that she wanted to make the Labor Department more company-friendly. We already have a Department of Commerce. We don't need two."
The Economic Policy Institute, a research group, estimates that 8 million workers could lose the right to overtime pay under the Bush plan. CWA attorney Mark Wilson, who authored the union's 26-page response to the pending changes, predicts the numbers could be even higher because the language is so vague and ambiguous.
Until CWA and other unions began meeting to review the issue and initiate a media and activist campaign, the Bush administration was hoping to stealthily revise the law to fit its corporate agenda.
Originally, unions had planned to hold a forum inside the DOL building, and paid to rent the public auditorium. But after the news releases announcing the event were sent last week, the DOL pulled the plug. "I guess they don't want us calling attention to this Bush administration-sponsored pay cut," AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Rich Trumka said. "But their plan to silence you didn't work.
Trumka said unions will be taking the issue to communities across the country to ensure that all workers understand what they are about to lose.
"The 40-hour work week isn't just a perk," he said. "This is a law that we won by generations of workers fighting for decent hours and decent wages. The 40-hour week and overtime pay are the legacy of some of the greatest uprisings of workers in our history to demand that they be treated with respect. Now the Bush administration wants to take it away. They want to take you back to the 1920s and 30s. We're not going to let them."
A letter workers can send as is or edit to tell President Bush and members of Congress to stop the assault on overtime is available on the AFL-CIO site. Follow the links at www.aflcio.org.