(AFL-CIO President John Sweeney issued the following statement on April 20.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Ignoring the protests of millions of American families and defying the wishes of Congress, the Bush Administration has pressed forward with new overtime regulations that will eliminate the right to overtime pay for many hardworking Americans. The Bush Administration staunchly opposed legislation which would preserve overtime pay for all workers and instead pressed forward with eliminating overtime pay for a huge swath of middle-class workers — many who make as little as $23,600 a year. The Bush overtime changes will take money directly out of the pockets of workers and put it into the hands of the President’s corporate campaign contributors. This has to be one of the biggest pay cuts in American history — special delivery to American workers straight from the White House. It is a huge windfall for large corporations.
Last year both the House and the Senate voted for legislation to prohibit overtime cuts, but the White House strong-armed Congress to keep this overtime guarantee from becoming law. The Administration has also ignored a tremendous outcry from millions of workers who sent many millions of e-mails, faxes and petitions urging Bush not to eliminate their right to overtime pay.
President Bush claims that his overtime plan will have “no impact” on American workers and will preserve overtime pay for such workers as firefighters and nurses, but the president has a credibility gap when it comes to overtime. Over the past year, in promoting its plan to eliminate overtime rights for 8 million workers, the Bush Administration has left an appalling trail of misstatements, evasions, half-truths, and outright falsifications that destroy any credibility they might have as defenders of workers’ overtime pay. If the Administration really believes that workers will not lose their right to overtime pay under its proposal, it should support pending legislation in Congress that would guarantee workers’ overtime rights and repeal any part of the regulation that cuts overtime. Workers need a binding overtime guarantee, enacted into law, not empty promises from an Administration that doesn’t care about workers.
It’s not enough that President Bush has been AWOL on jobs during his entire presidency, during which the country has lost nearly 3 million private sector jobs and long-term unemployment has reached record highs. Now, the new regulation will further discourage job growth. Allowing businesses to stop paying for overtime will only encourage them to overwork their existing employees and refrain from hiring new workers. Americans should demand immediate repeal of any part of the President’s plan that cuts overtime pay.