White House Said to Prevail on Overtime Work Rules

[Snellius]

Nov. 21 — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration won a Capitol Hill battle on Friday over proposed changes to U.S. overtime work rules that are supported by business and opposed by labor, congressional aides said.

They said Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, had lifted his objections to the proposal, clearing the way for passage of a huge year-end spending bill.

Specter made the about-face a day after he floated a possible compromise that got shot down, and just hours after he told a news conference he was still seeking a deal. He conceded he had been "boxed in" with no certain way to prevail.

The administration, which has refused to back down from its proposal despite majority votes against it in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, contends the regulations would clarify and update often confusing and antiquated work rules.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/reuters20031121_566.html

[Cha]

Good ...just one more nail in their political

coffin. This is a Rallying Cry for Labor during the election of the century.

[benfranklin1776]

14. Agreed and it begins with Arlen "I invented the Magic Bullet" Specter.

A whore for the Warren Commission then and a whore for corporate america now. Rest assured Mr. Specter's desertion of the working people of this country will be used against him with ferocity in his upcoming struggle to hold his Senate seat in Pennsylvania. Arlen has now removed the last vestiges of his pretentious veneer of "moderation." This is indeed fuel for the election fire and he will rue this action in 2004. Hope whatever he got in exchange for his vote was worth it.

[alarimer]

21. I don't know

Judging by how little attention this has received in the media so far, I doubt most people even know about it. Unless the Democrats really play this up, I don't think it will make a difference. The Repukes have already rolled out ads emphasizing the "war on terror". I guess trying to scare people into voting for this asshole. Personally, I already get comp time instead of overtime but this is a terrible thing for workers in general. Maybe it will bring back unions but I doubt it.

[flamingyouth]

1. Oh no, that's terrible

It looked like that would go in our favor. Crap.

[scarletlib]

2. Quickest,shortest way to get the average joe's attention

Take away overtime, force people to work for illusionary "taken in the future at your bosses discretion" comp time and see how fast the repukes will lose voters and votes.

[Ilsa]

5. A multi-billion dollar loan at zero interest

for big business in the form of unpaid deferred compensation to the average joe.

[La_Serpiente]

3. Reagan Democrats will now be left with a choice

will they support a candidate that is for labor rights but also social justice or one that will strip them of their livelihood. This is going to be a tough one for them.

[JailBush]

4. Where are America's unions?

I was amazed at how little publicity this attack on workers received - and at how little workers protested. It kind of makes you wonder if there are any unions left that haven't been corrupted. (As near as I can tell, all the unions in Seattle are corrupt.)

As I recall, this bill wasn't designed to nix ALL overtime; I think it only affects people who earn more than $50,000 a year, or somewhere in that neighborhood.

Still, it's another coup for Bill Gates and his pals. If Bush gets re-Selected, I suspect the Republicans will do a sequel that targets ALL overtime.

[ikojo]

6. It's being sold by the pugs as affecting only those who earn $50K or

more. What it will allow managers and corporate America to do is reclassify workers as exempt if their job includes a great deal of decision making. There will probably be a whole new class of fake managers come January 2004.

As far as upsetting workers in this country...I think people will take it because they will say, well at least I have a job.

It seems that the pugs can continue shafting the working class and they come back and ask for more.

[JailBush]

8. Amen!

I thought I might FINALLY see the beginnings of a revolution when Boeing began laying off thousands of employees here in Seattle. Adding injury to injury, Boeing then asked the state to forgive several BILLION dollars in taxes, effectively stealing more money from citizens.

There was no revolt, that I'm aware of. However, if I run for public office again, I'm going to make Boeing an issue. It would be interesting to see what the muddled masses REALLY think.

[Ilsa]

7. It also could easily apply to nurses

who are told they will be reported to state boards for deserting their patients if there is a nursing shortage. They'll have to stay to work extra shifts or longer shifts, and not get their overtime. It's cheaper to work the same group to death than to pay OT and have a trained staff.

[54anickel]

10. Unions have been quite involved in this.

AFL-CIO was big on the letter writing campaigns and set up www.unionvoice.org site. Works much like moveon.org

[Upfront]

11. Unions

Have things called contracts that spell out how overtime is paid. This bill will not hurt Union workers much, but they still did there best to stop it. This will hurt the workers who are not union members. Unions have been fighting these battles all along for years with no help, and even contempt from lots of non-union workers who did not see a need to have a union. It was even perceived to not be to smart to pay union dues to some dam union boss who won't help me any way. Now the chickens are coming home to roost. If this is what it will take to get people to wise up, so be it. Oh, and while I am on a rant, don't buy Union made stuff or even American made stuff, unless you want to save your job.

[DivinBreuvage]

12. I'm afraid the unions are on their way out

for a while. They're being squeezed to death by:

1. the corporate stranglehold on the American political system;

2. job losses to "developing" nations;

3. the stupidity of non-union workers in sectors like mining and printing who believe the union-style benefits they enjoy are due to their employer's innate sense of generosity and their own Stakhanovite merit;

4. the ignorance of the public opinion which holds that unions "cost America jobs" because they pay "unrealistic wages and benefits" and because "union workers are lazy and unproductive and it's impossible to fire anybody";

5. union workers who bitch about having to be in the union.

So I suppose we'll have to go back to the good old working conditions of the 1880s - 1930s, along with the joys of strike-breaking, head-busting, and murders, before we can learn this lesson again. I sometimes wish someone would make a movie about the labor movement in the 1930s to re-educate people as to why it's so necessary for workers to have protection. Well, maybe next century.

Françoise

[Just Me]

9. Killin' the lower and middle class,...

,...just more substantiation for what this "leadership" stands for,...themselves. They pretend it's all for small business HA HA HA which has less than 1/100 chance of making it in this country already ruled (by proxy) by big corporations. What's funny is,...we have a seriously inverse form of communism taking place. The corporations are controlling the government rather than the government ruling the corporations. Crazy,...ain't it.

[jbutsz]

17. Fascism

The merging of corporate and political power is fascism, not communism.

[schultzee]

13. Corporatist greed pigs. Stealing everything. Quit buying what you can

and boycott their garbage. I am only buying what I must and have been for a while because I see what is coming down. I don't want to help the pigs, mainly the national chains.

[bluestateguy]

15. Any Union worker who votes for * gets what they deserve

[ninkasi]

16. I agree...

and would like to point out, for people who have never been in a union, anyway; before I retired, I was a union member. We fought just as hard on issues for non members as for members, because it was the practices and policies we were trying to have applied fairly. Sometimes, we would fight tooth and nail for people who crossed our picket lines when we were on strike.

We fought for them, anyway, because otherwise, the company could have set a precedent that would have hurt all of us. Sometimes, you just have to take a deep breath and fight anyway.

[jbutsz]

18. Well

Measures like these are certainly one way to expedite a revolution.. I don't think they've got a damned clue.

Do they think people will just tuck their tails at these attacks on their survival and say "yes sir, may I have some more"?

[abelenkpe]

19. yes

that is exactly what they feel people will do. And you'll be surprised how many will.

[kskiska]

20. I have to wonder how my wingnut dad feels about this

He's long retired, but for years he turned down an executive engineering position because he didn't want to give up his overtime.