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Working Families Face Challenge in New Congress
The 107th Congress has started its work and CWA is closely following the action, especially any attempts to take away from working families the gains made in job safety and health, labor standards and the right to participate in the political process.
Both houses of Congress, in addition to the White House, are controlled by the Republican Party. The Senate is evenly split, with 50 Democrats and Republicans each, but the GOP has the edge with Vice President Dick Cheney casting any tie-breaking votes. In the House, there are currently 221 Republicans and 212 Democrats and Independents, with two special elections to be held to replace Rep. Bud Shuster (R-Pa.), who retired, and the late Rep. Julian Dixon (D-Calif.).
Heading the House Education and Workforce Committee is Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), whose lifetime CWA voting record is nearly 100 percent wrong (1 right vote/51 wrong votes).
In the Senate, Jim Jeffords (R-Vt.), with a CWA voting record of 36 percent right, will continue to chair the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
“The only way we will protect the gains we’ve made for all workers in job safety, pensions, working conditions and other areas is for our members to stay involved and keep up the kind of intense grassroots effort that we know does make a difference,” CWA President Morton Bahr said.
An immediate concern is that the Bush White House and Republican congressional leaders will pursue legislation to destroy the 40-hour workweek, said Lou Gerber, CWA’s chief lobbyist. In the past few congressional sessions, he said, labor has had to fend off assaults on overtime pay and end runs to substitute “comp” time, or compensatory time off, for overtime wages.
“Now, we won’t have the protection of a presidential veto,” Gerber said. Not only did the Clinton administration veto or threaten to veto anti-worker legislation, he noted, but it refused to issue administrative waivers, actions that would have hurt working families. Gerber cited then-Gov. Bush’s unsuccessful attempt to gain a waiver of federal requirements for human services programs in Texas — which would have cost 10,000 CWA members their jobs — as an example of the importance of White House support.
As president, Bush probably will use administrative authority — such as waivers and executive orders — to accomplish things that fail to win majority support in Congress, Gerber said.
Congressional supporters of various comp time measures try to paint them as “family friendly,” but bills requiring employees to work as much as 160 hours in a four-week period before overtime pay takes effect will make it impossible for workers to balance their jobs and family responsibilities, CWA leaders say.
Congressional Republicans have more bad news to deliver on the comp-time issue. Union members temporarily have protection from the immediate effect of such a law, because workers covered by collective bargaining are excluded. But when contracts expire, employers could try to impose the new rules, Gerber said.
The assault on overtime has been showing up in some other ways that would directly affect CWA members. So-called “inside sales” legislation would permit employers not to pay overtime wages to certain groups of workers, including workers in “yellow pages” sales, newspaper ad sales and other marketing positions, Gerber said.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers — key business lobbying groups — have declared that lifting overtime requirements will be a primary goal.
Another key issue facing Congress is the Labor Department’s ergonomics standard. Gerber predicts an early fight by House Republicans to block the standard, designed to prevent hundreds of thousands of crippling workplace injuries every year.
Bush and Republicans in Congress are also expected to try to block workers’ participation in the political process, through the misnamed “paycheck protection” measure. Gerber said the measure is likely to be added to campaign finance reform legislation as a “poison pill” by Republicans hoping to block real reform.
The AFL-CIO Executive Council has vowed to defend working families against such an attack.
“Union members elect their own leaders, vote on their own dues and determine together how to use the union’s resources. So-called ‘paycheck protection’ undermines union democracy and erodes the principle of majority rule,” AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said.
Both houses of Congress, in addition to the White House, are controlled by the Republican Party. The Senate is evenly split, with 50 Democrats and Republicans each, but the GOP has the edge with Vice President Dick Cheney casting any tie-breaking votes. In the House, there are currently 221 Republicans and 212 Democrats and Independents, with two special elections to be held to replace Rep. Bud Shuster (R-Pa.), who retired, and the late Rep. Julian Dixon (D-Calif.).
Heading the House Education and Workforce Committee is Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), whose lifetime CWA voting record is nearly 100 percent wrong (1 right vote/51 wrong votes).
In the Senate, Jim Jeffords (R-Vt.), with a CWA voting record of 36 percent right, will continue to chair the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
“The only way we will protect the gains we’ve made for all workers in job safety, pensions, working conditions and other areas is for our members to stay involved and keep up the kind of intense grassroots effort that we know does make a difference,” CWA President Morton Bahr said.
An immediate concern is that the Bush White House and Republican congressional leaders will pursue legislation to destroy the 40-hour workweek, said Lou Gerber, CWA’s chief lobbyist. In the past few congressional sessions, he said, labor has had to fend off assaults on overtime pay and end runs to substitute “comp” time, or compensatory time off, for overtime wages.
“Now, we won’t have the protection of a presidential veto,” Gerber said. Not only did the Clinton administration veto or threaten to veto anti-worker legislation, he noted, but it refused to issue administrative waivers, actions that would have hurt working families. Gerber cited then-Gov. Bush’s unsuccessful attempt to gain a waiver of federal requirements for human services programs in Texas — which would have cost 10,000 CWA members their jobs — as an example of the importance of White House support.
As president, Bush probably will use administrative authority — such as waivers and executive orders — to accomplish things that fail to win majority support in Congress, Gerber said.
Congressional supporters of various comp time measures try to paint them as “family friendly,” but bills requiring employees to work as much as 160 hours in a four-week period before overtime pay takes effect will make it impossible for workers to balance their jobs and family responsibilities, CWA leaders say.
Congressional Republicans have more bad news to deliver on the comp-time issue. Union members temporarily have protection from the immediate effect of such a law, because workers covered by collective bargaining are excluded. But when contracts expire, employers could try to impose the new rules, Gerber said.
The assault on overtime has been showing up in some other ways that would directly affect CWA members. So-called “inside sales” legislation would permit employers not to pay overtime wages to certain groups of workers, including workers in “yellow pages” sales, newspaper ad sales and other marketing positions, Gerber said.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers — key business lobbying groups — have declared that lifting overtime requirements will be a primary goal.
Another key issue facing Congress is the Labor Department’s ergonomics standard. Gerber predicts an early fight by House Republicans to block the standard, designed to prevent hundreds of thousands of crippling workplace injuries every year.
Bush and Republicans in Congress are also expected to try to block workers’ participation in the political process, through the misnamed “paycheck protection” measure. Gerber said the measure is likely to be added to campaign finance reform legislation as a “poison pill” by Republicans hoping to block real reform.
The AFL-CIO Executive Council has vowed to defend working families against such an attack.
“Union members elect their own leaders, vote on their own dues and determine together how to use the union’s resources. So-called ‘paycheck protection’ undermines union democracy and erodes the principle of majority rule,” AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said.