|
Tell Your Senators to Stop President Bush's Attack on Overtime Pay
As part of their overtime pay take-away, the Bush Labor Department is giving out tips to employers on how to make some workers ineligible for overtime pay. But your senators still can stop Bush’s attack on workers’ paychecks. Please take one minute right now to tell your U.S. senators to protect overtime pay, and send a copy to President Bush. Adding your own words or story to the letter below will make it more personal.
| Sample Letter for Campaign |
Subject: Protect Overtime Pay!
Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,
I urge you to protect workers' paychecks by voting against cloture and continuing to filibuster the omnibus spending bill from which overtime pay protections were dropped. Overtime pay is a critical part of the family income of millions of America's working families. No worker should lose his or her overtime pay or protections.
I was angered to learn recently that the Department of Labor has published tips for employers on how to avoid paying workers for their overtime hours. Helping employers cut the paychecks that support working families should not be the role of any part of our government, much less the Labor Department! I hope you were outraged as well and will use your vote to stop the attack on overtime pay.
Please vote against cloture on the omnibus spending bill and support the continued filibuster so you can preserve overtime pay protections for some 8 million workers. This is one of the issues I will use to evaluate your commitment to working families. I urgently await your reply.
Sincerely,
|
Campaign Launched:
January 08, 2004
|
Overtime pay cuts being pushed by the Bush administration are slated to go into effect for millions of workers unless Congress acts to block them. These changes would erode the 40-hour workweek and mean that if you receive overtime pay now, you might not in the future. Both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House previously voted to oppose the Bush overtime pay take-away however President Bush’s lobbyists have managed to remove overtime protections from pending legislation.
In addition, the Associated Press has revealed in recent press coverage that the Bush Labor Department is actually helping employers figure out how to reclassify some workers or change jobs around so they don’t have to pay overtime. The Bush administration is giving out tips to employers on how to cut workers’ paychecks.
Analysis from the Economic Policy Institute shows millions could lose overtime pay, possibly including firefighters, police officers, nurses, retail clerks, certain medical technicians, military reservists, tech workers and many, many more. Under the Bush plan, you still may be forced to work overtime hours—but you might not be paid for the extra hours.
Overtime pay makes up about one-fourth of the average weekly earnings of workers who receive it. That is an average pay cut of $161 a week and can add up to thousands of dollars a year. Can you imagine the government cutting the pay of a firefighter by thousands of dollars per year? How much would you lose? These overtime pay cuts are like a giant new tax on working families by a president who, at the same time, works hard to give tax breaks to millionaires.
With a struggling economy, millions out of work and staggering health care and prescription drug costs, this is a burden America’s workers should NOT have to bear. The overtime rules protect workers from bosses who would impose unbearably long hours if they didn’t have to pay extra for overtime work. Many workers would have less predictable work schedules because of the increased demand for overtime work.
The U.S. Senate should again act to block President Bush’s overtime pay take-away. Please act today.
|
