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Senate bows to Bush; Administration's overtime pay take-away (if enacted) would threaten future state employee negotiations

Jan. 29, 2004 - Strong-armed by President George W. Bush, members of the U.S. Senate last week backed off a filibuster against a massive government spending bill.

Bush had threatened to veto the bill if it included an overtime pay protection guarantee for the nation’s workers, and the Senate in December launched a filibuster to protest the lack of an overtime pay guarantee in the bill. The 61–32 vote that ended the filibuster against the omnibus appropriations bill was one vote more than needed to meet the 60-vote threshold to shut off debate.

Labor leaders in Washington, D.C., say fight is far from over though. Congressional backers of the overtime pay guarantee say they will find another legislative avenue to block the Bush administration’s changes in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) that would cost 8 million workers their overtime pay protection under the FLSA.

>> Statement by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney

proposed federal rules  Maintaining the right to earn overtime pay is critical to middle class families struggling to make ends meat, and it is a basic union right. Lower pay, longer hours and unpredictable work schedules are some of the changes working families could face under proposed changes to overtime and compensatory time rules.

Promoted by the Bush administration as “family-friendly” measures, changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act proposed by President Bush, along with five Big Business-backed bills now in Congress, would take away working people’s hard-fought 40-hour workweek and overtime pay—with no meaningful increased flexibility to help workers balance demands of jobs and family.

The Bush administration has proposed to loosen the rules that determine the types of employees not entitled to overtime pay after 40 hours of work.

According to an Economic Policy Institute report, workers—including workers, including police officers, nurses, store supervisors and many other 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.

OHIO IMPACT Some state employee union members don't realize that the U.S. Department of Labor's proposed overtime rules could impact even workers covered by collective bargaining agreements, says OCSEA Operations Director Bruce Wyngaard.

"Although overtime (OT) pay is a right under the OCSEA and State of Ohio Contract, it would be subject to more risk should the federal government enact the OT pay takeaway legislation," Wyngaard said.

At that point, Wyngaard explained, OCSEA benefits would exceed what the federal law provides for and set state workers up for an attack on overtime pay contract language at the next bargaining session. "When there's an erosion of benefits at the federal level, the states often fall in line under the added pressure conform to reduced benefits."

While petitions and letters are good ways to take action, another way you can fight back is register to vote. You have the power to elect candidates who help the middle class and support public employee labor unions.

>> Register to Vote

The Department of Labor wants to enact the new rules by March 2004, meanwhile union members across the nation are working to block this harmful legislation.