Labor unions rally against overtime takeaway

New regulations strip millions of right to overtime pay

Hundreds of labor activists gathered in front of the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C., to voice opposition to revisions to the Fair Labor Standards Act that redefine which workers may be denied overtime pay for working extra hours based on whether they are considered managers, executives or professionals. The group rallied on Aug. 23, the day the new regulations took effect.

As a single parent of four children, getting paid for the overtime hours she works is a necessity—not a luxury—for AFT member and registered nurse Joy Anderson, who addressed the rally. "Overtime is necessary and vital" to earn a decent living, said Anderson, who tallies eight to 10 hours a week in overtime. The changes adopted by the Bush administration will adversely affect workers like Anderson and her professional colleagues.

"We don’t get the perks like George Bush and his friends. We can’t just walk through life. We have to work. They may not have to depend on overtime. We’ve got to pay for healthcare, car insurance and property taxes. I don’t need time, I need money," Anderson told the crowd.

A nurse at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark and co-president of that hospital’s AFT local, Anderson was one of two AFT members featured at the AFL-CIO-sponsored rally held to protest the new regulations that could strip her and millions of other workers of their right to overtime pay.

AFT member Cindy Weinraub, an early childhood educator at the Katz Jewish Community Center in Cherry Hill, N.J., told the protesters she loves her job despite the long hours and low wages. The overtime changes will definitely hurt her, said Weinraub, a member of the Katz Early Childhood Federation of Teachers/AFT. "It will be difficult to continue when I can barely afford to live."

The protesters were joined by Sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), who vowed to continue their efforts to stop the new regulations. The AFT and AFL-CIO are calling on Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives to bring to vote a measure that would block rules taking away overtime pay rights but would allow changes expanding overtime eligibility. The AFL-CIO also sponsored similar protests in Cincinnati, Cleveland and Dayton, Ohio; Des Moines, Iowa; Lansing, Mich.; Miami; and St. Louis.

"Instead of helping Americans who are still looking for jobs, the Bush administration has given employers another reason not to hire new employees, while requiring current workers to work overtime without receiving fair compensation," says AFT president Edward J. McElroy.

LaCour elected to AFL-CIO council

AFT secretary-treasurer Nat LaCour this summer was elected to the AFL-CIO executive council. He joins AFT president Edward J. McElroy and 47 other vice presidents and three AFL-CIO officers on the council.

The AFL-CIO executive council, along with delegates to the AFL-CIO’s quadrennial convention and the federation’s general board, is an important policymaking body of the federation, meeting at least twice a year to consider union business and resolutions.

LaCour, who was elected AFT secretary-treasurer at the AFT convention in Washington, D.C., in July, had previously served as the AFT's executive vice president. Over the past four years, he chaired the AFT’s organizing committee, charting a course for unprecedented membership growth for the union. During that time, the union grew by nearly 230,000 members.

LaCour is a former president of the AFT-affiliated United Teachers of New Orleans. In 1974, without the aid of a state public employee collective bargaining law, his local became the first teachers union in the Deep South to obtain a collective bargaining agreement with a school district.

The AFL-CIO council also paid tribute to Sandra Feldman, who for health reasons decided not to run for another term as AFT president; Feldman also had served on the AFL-CIO executive council. In a special resolution, the council expressed its "gratitude and appreciation to Sandra Feldman for her service and devotion to the members of her union and to the labor movement."