Tell Congress to Stop the Bush Overtime Pay Take-Away

Good news! Last month the Senate passed the Harkin Amendment, prohibiting the Bush Administration from taking away the overtime rights of America's workers. But the fight isn't over yet. We must urge the House of Representatives to vote for the Senate amendment to stop the Bush overtime take-away. MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD NOW!

They need to feel the heat! Please act today by sending a letter to Congress. (Feel free to add your own words to the letter below to personalize it with your own thoughts and feelings.)

Sample Letter for Campaign

Subject: Support a vote on the Harkin Amendment

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

I urge that you support a vote in the House on the Harkin amendment, which was passed by the Senate and would prohibit the Bush Administration from eliminating overtime rights.

Overtime pay should be the right of every worker in America. Working families count on overtime pay for everyday needs like housing, food, transportation, health care and more. Without overtime pay these families will suffer a huge pay cut.

I hope that you will stand with the Senate and not side with corporate campaign contributors over working families--especially after so many thousands of people sent letters, e-mails, faxes or signed petitions opposing the Bush Administration's proposed pay cut.

I will use this issue and your actions to judge your commitment to working families. I urgently await your reply.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
May 05, 2004

Background Information

The U.S. Senate handed President George W. Bush a stinging defeat May 4 when it approved an overtime pay guarantee for workers who stand to lose their overtime pay under new rules issued last month by the Bush administration.

The 52–47 vote on an amendment by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) came after nearly two weeks of an intense Bush administration spin operation that tried to paint the new provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) as an expansion of overtime eligibility that would not cost workers their overtime pay rights.

“Working families are fed up with the administration’s schemes and spin. They have a simple request: ‘Give us an iron-clad guarantee that our overtime rights are safe,’” Harkin said before the vote. “If Mr. Bush and his Department of Labor are sincere in their stated desire to preserve overtime, they can prove it by supporting my amendment to guarantee that workers who are entitled to overtime pay under the old rules will not lose that right under the new rules.”

The Harkin amendment allows updates to the rules that govern overtime eligibility but ensures no currently eligible workers lose their overtime pay and lets stand any provision that actually expands overtime eligibility. It also applies retroactively. If the Bush overtime take-away goes into effect before the legislative process is finalized—the House must still act—the Harkin amendment would halt the overtime pay grab.

After a yearlong drive to take away workers’ overtime pay, the Bush administration published its new overtime rules April 23 and they are due to go into effect in late August.

If they do take effect, it will “mean longer hours and less pay for millions of workers—and more litigation for our entire economy,” Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing May 4.

Democratic congressional leaders have vowed to continue fighting the Bush overtime pay grab. The next step will take place in the House, which could vote on the Harkin amendment as part of its version of the FSC bill or vote to instruct House members of a House–Senate conference committee charged with reconciling two versions of the FSC bill to accept the Harkin amendment as part of the final legislation.

Although the Senate and House backed a similar overtime pay protection amendment last year, Republican congressional leaders, working closely with the Bush White House, stripped the amendment from the final version of appropriations bill to which it was attached.