RIP Overtime Pay

Subject: Obit: Overtime Pay
From: Amergin
Date: 25 Nov 03 - 05:22 AM

Dear Working Families e-Activist:

A lot happened this weekend in the fight to stop President
Bush's overtime pay take-away. After weeks of strong-arming,
President Bush succeeded in keeping the ban on his overtime pay
cuts out of end-of-year legislation, even though bipartisan
majorities in the U.S. Senate and House had voted with
workers--and against President Bush. These are the same
strong-arm tactics the Bush administration used on Medicare and
other issues. Once Bush's Department of Labor announces a start
date (which could be in December) the new overtime rules will
sadly go into effect and strip overtime pay from millions of
ordinary working Americans.

URGENT ACTION is required, and in response the AFL-CIO is
calling for an OVERTIME PAY NATIONAL WEEK OF ACTION starting
Dec. 1 when we'll ask you to help spread the word about Bush's
overtime pay take-away. Talking to your friends, family and
co-workers about President Bush's attack on overtime
protections, the 40-hour workweek and the weekend is the most
important thing you can do. Our best hope for beating Bush's
overtime pay take-away is to involve millions of Americans in
this growing movement.

And, since you may have already written a letter to your
senators and representative, please send a note to your friends and family and coworkers.


If you'd prefer to send your own e-mail message, you can copy
and paste the text below into your e-mail and send it to
everybody in your e-mail address book.

\\\\\\ copy and paste below //////

Dear Friend:

President Bush is pushing a massive overtime pay take-away that
would strip overtime protections from millions of working
Americans. More than 8 million people will lose their overtime
pay possibly as soon as December. The AFL-CIO has a page where
you can send a fax for free to your senators and representative
on overtime pay. You don't have to be a union member. Please
click on the link below to help protect overtime pay.
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/otlastchance/

After you take action, please spread the word.

Thanks.

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Look for an e-mail on Dec. 1 to announce the first part of the
week of action. Before then, you can get ready by building and
collecting an e-mail list you'll forward notes to during the
week of action. For the first time ever, we'll also be asking
you to print out some materials from a website and distribute
them in your workplace or your community.

Here is some of what the Bush overtime pay take-away would do as
part of the biggest rollback of overtime protections in U.S.
history:

+ Millions of salaried workers making between $22,100 and
$65,000 could be reclassified as "executives" or
"administrative" employees-and would no longer qualify for
overtime pay.

+ Relatively low-salary earners who have supervisory
responsibilities could be penalized. Workers who make $23,000 a
year could be classified as executives.

+ Workers with training or education could be hurt. This
includes medical training and IT training. Some of the jobs that
might lose overtime pay could be nurses technicians and medical
therapists but also hundreds of others.

+ Many employers would assign overtime work to newly exempt
employees and eliminate overtime work opportunities for other
overtime-eligible workers. Everybody loses.

+ Anyone making $65,000 or more a year doing office or
non-manual work would lose the right to overtime pay.

We need to stop these awful Bush overtime pay cuts so please
remember to check your e-mail on Dec. 1.

Thanks for all you do.

In Solidarity,

Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO
Nov. 24, 2003

MORE: News story on the AFL-CIO website
http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/17z4XuE1z13F//

MORE: Flash Cartoon on Overtime Pay by Mark Fiore
http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/1pz4XuE1z13-//

Subject: RE: RIP Overtime Pay
From: GUEST,Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Nov 03 - 09:48 AM

It is astonishing to view all of the truly obscene stuff Bush and his wealthy Republican cronies are pulling in this administration. The Sept. 11 disaster is the best thing that could have happened for him. It muted protesters for over a year, and now if anyone gives voice to legitimate complaints Rove and Ashcroft and their ilk wrap their issues in the flag, blur the lines between Iraq and Afghanistan and while you're once again looking over there they shift the pea under the shell and push more Republicans-Raid-the-Budget-and-get-Even-Richer legislation through.

Now they're calling this gang-rape of Medicare (via huge subsidies to the drug companies and the promise that drug companies DON'T NEED TO NEGOTIATE THE PRICES THEY CHARGE MEDICARE FOR RECIPIENT'S DRUGS) a "victory." That victory is the death knell for Medicare, just in time for you and me to retire. Drug companies want to keep gouging and insurance companies want to stop losing customers when they reach age 65.

SRS

Subject: RE: RIP Overtime Pay
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 25 Nov 03 - 05:41 PM

In Aust, macas used to often make junior employees take the cash to the bank at closing time. One poor juniour was beaten up and robbed - Macas sued him for the money - the magistrate said that as he was not an adult, he was not legally responsible, and that Macas was irresponsible for entrusting him or any junior with the banking money.

Occassionally the little people win some... useful line to take - if they won't pay adult wages, then they can't claim adult responsibility - i.e. managerial/executive roles.

Robin

Subject: RE: RIP Overtime Pay
From: Barry Finn
Date: 25 Nov 03 - 06:56 PM

I'd love to see a national strike, it seems to send a message in other countries, I'm sure it would send a message here.

Barry

Subject: RE: RIP Overtime Pay
From: GUEST,Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Nov 03 - 11:00 PM

Last time someone Federal tried a strike Reagan fired them. Air traffic control has been a lot worse off ever since. It's damned if you do, damned if you don't in these republican administrations.

Subject: RE: RIP Overtime Pay
From: Bobert
Date: 25 Nov 03 - 11:31 PM

Ahhhh, normal for the Bushites....

Problem is that their folks won't get it until they can't leave their little secure compounds for fear of some poor guy who used to have a real job and now is a greater at Wal-Mart wanting a piece of revenge...

This will come to pass...

Greed will undo Bush and his people...

I'll guarentee it....

Yeah, they'll have to redefine success...

Middle class is meltin' fast...

America: Welcome to the Third World!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bobert

Subject: RE: RIP Overtime Pay
From: Teribus
Date: 26 Nov 03 - 04:27 AM

Barry,

A national strike would be in no-ones interest. A voluntary ban on overtime on the other hand would. If you are not going to be paid for the work you simply do not do it. Only problem with that is to physically get it to happen.

I would imagine that if it did, overtime pay would restored PDQ! Because to make up the short-fall employers would have to increase their work force and their costs.

Subject: RE: RIP Overtime Pay
From: artbrooks
Date: 26 Nov 03 - 07:47 AM

Note that this new set of rules do not eliminate overtime, but only makes changes in who is and who is not entitled to receive it. They cover (the changes, that is),u>only people who are classified as "executives", "administrators" and "professionals" under the Fair labor Standards Act, and not staff employees.

Personally, I'm only slightly more inclined to believe a statement from a big business such as the AFL-CIO than I am from Dubya and his minions. Here is a press release on the new policy, and it may have a positive element or two, at least they now cover the manager of our local Burger King. The "proposed rules" are here ...they are almost as arcane as the old ones, but a simplification of the exemption regulations would be good (I worked with these things for 20+ years). These came out last spring, and I couldn't find the "final rules"...the ones that seem somewhat flakey in the proposal are their new ones for "professionals."

Subject: RE: RIP Overtime Pay
From: Bobert
Date: 26 Nov 03 - 08:24 AM

The problems with the overtime policy is that it hits the middle class the hardest. It's the guy making a half way decent living, paying for a house, and has the first of his 2.3 kids only a couple years away from college. Now he's lookin' around at the job market and swaetin' bullets on the inside while tyrying to be perceived as a confident *company man (or woamn)* on the outside so, sure, he's going to do whatever the company wants of him or her. This fear that management has put inthe hearts of what's left of the m iddle class is not only cruel and hateful but also possessing elements that can and will come back to bite them. You can only oppress people but so long before porductivity falls.

Bottom line, the Bushites have stoned the labor movement back 50 years, maybe 60... We're not hearing folks asking for more money or increased health benefits. What we're seeing is labor just trying to hold its own and not loose any more ground... They've lost 22% of their spending power in 20 years. That's not good. If the ruling class had lost 22% it would be easier to take but quite the contrary has occured as Boss Hog has rewritten the rules over and over in the middle of the game to steal more and more of the wealth ceated by the working class.

Talk about a welfare mentality?

Bobert

Subject: RE: RIP Overtime Pay
From: Joe Offer
Date: 27 Nov 03 - 04:35 AM

Of course, it isn't just Bush. I lost my job as a government investigator due to privatization perpetrated by the Clinton Administration. As government employees, we didn't quite get time-and-a-half for an hour of overtime, but it was close. Once we privatized, our managers paid us about ten dollars an hour for overtime. They worked out a deal with the U.S. Department of Labor. Since we were on salary, they said we were already compensated for our time, no matter how long we worked. All they had to pay was an overtime differential, half an hour's pay, for each hour of overtime we worked. The more we worked, the lower the differential - if we worked 70 hours in a week, they divided our weekly salary by 140 to get the differential.

It didn't work in California, though - it was the only state that had a law that prevented that sort of legerdemain. When I worked overtime in California, I got forty bucks an hour.

If you work extra, you don't get extra benefits - and you lose the time you had hoped to spend with your family and friends. You should be compensated for working beyond a standard work week - and time-and-a-half seems fair to both managment and labor.

But Clinton would have killed overtime pay if he could have gotten away with it. He and Gore were no friends of labor, and neither is Bush.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: RIP Overtime Pay
From: Bobert
Date: 27 Nov 03 - 09:10 AM

Yer absolutely correct, Joe. This demise of the working class has been going on for pushing 3 decades as more and more conservative people reign in power and change the rules.

And the rich have been getting richer beyond their wildest dreams during this 3 decade tail spin of the working class...

Lots of folks point to the number of high priced SUV's and say "Hey, Bobert's out of his mind. Look at all we've got!"

No, we ain't got 'em. It's an illusion. What we have collectively as the working class is a lot of debt and not so bright possibilities of retirment. That's the way Boss Hog drew it up on paper and it seems to be playing out just perfectly...

Social Security and Medicare are now well in Boss Hog's crosshairs.

Bobert

Subject: RE: RIP Overtime Pay
From: Amergin
Date: 27 Nov 03 - 02:58 PM

of course the working folks do not need any sort of retirement fund...only those with the millions need it...us, workers only need to keep working til we drop and die from exhaustion.