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Veterans Learn They're Targeted to Lose Overtime
As CWA and other unions continue to fight the Labor Department's attack on the 40-hour workweek, veterans and lawmakers are reacting with shock and anger at news that people with military training are among millions of workers at risk of losing their right to overtime pay under the Bush administration's scheme.
"It is an insult to the men and women who have faithfully served their country that they should have to worry about losing their right to overtime pay simply because they learned a unique set of skills while in the armed forces," said Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii).
A Washington Post story in late January described how easily veterans can be excluded from overtime rights under the proposed regulations, and even quoted from Boeing's enthusiastic endorsement of the DOL plan.
In spite of that, the DOL claimed in news reports that veterans wouldn't be affected at all by the revisions, and blamed the media and workers' advocates for making it an issue.
"The language is crystal clear," CWA President Morton Bahr said. "Boeing understands it and so do other employers. They can't wait for the chance to cut their payrolls, and that's precisely what the Bush administration intends. It's bad enough that veterans and millions of other working people will suffer, but for the DOL to blatantly deny that such language even exists is a continuation of the Bush administration's tactics of deceit and disinformation."
CWA's legislative staff is aggressively working with other unions and the AFL-CIO on legislative and legal avenues to stop the DOL from going forward with its plan. Democrats in Congress are looking at bills to which they could attach language similar to the Harkin amendment that Republican leaders thwarted last year - in spite of support from many Republican moderates. The amendment would have barred the agency from taking overtime rights away from anyone currently eligible.
"We're not going to let this administration off the hook on overtime," Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle told reporters this week.
DOL officials have said they expect to finalize the rules this spring, and employers are pushing to them to do so. Boeing wrote to the Labor Department last June saying it "strongly supports" the revisions - especially language that would classify workers with military training as "learned experts," thereby exempt from required overtime pay, the Post reported.
"It is an insult to the men and women who have faithfully served their country that they should have to worry about losing their right to overtime pay simply because they learned a unique set of skills while in the armed forces," said Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii).
A Washington Post story in late January described how easily veterans can be excluded from overtime rights under the proposed regulations, and even quoted from Boeing's enthusiastic endorsement of the DOL plan.
In spite of that, the DOL claimed in news reports that veterans wouldn't be affected at all by the revisions, and blamed the media and workers' advocates for making it an issue.
"The language is crystal clear," CWA President Morton Bahr said. "Boeing understands it and so do other employers. They can't wait for the chance to cut their payrolls, and that's precisely what the Bush administration intends. It's bad enough that veterans and millions of other working people will suffer, but for the DOL to blatantly deny that such language even exists is a continuation of the Bush administration's tactics of deceit and disinformation."
CWA's legislative staff is aggressively working with other unions and the AFL-CIO on legislative and legal avenues to stop the DOL from going forward with its plan. Democrats in Congress are looking at bills to which they could attach language similar to the Harkin amendment that Republican leaders thwarted last year - in spite of support from many Republican moderates. The amendment would have barred the agency from taking overtime rights away from anyone currently eligible.
"We're not going to let this administration off the hook on overtime," Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle told reporters this week.
DOL officials have said they expect to finalize the rules this spring, and employers are pushing to them to do so. Boeing wrote to the Labor Department last June saying it "strongly supports" the revisions - especially language that would classify workers with military training as "learned experts," thereby exempt from required overtime pay, the Post reported.