Most of the people who read my increasingly infrequent posts probably know about the President's plan to kill overtime pay for people who can be classified as "responsible", "skilled", or "important" in their job function, particularly if they make more than $21,000 per year.
What they likely don't know is that despite the 100,000 faxes and letters sent to the Senate over the past couple of days, the Mr. Bush has threatened to VETO any legislation that attempts to protect overtime pay.
for people who don't see the problem, lets put it in perspective. For me, a couple fo hours of overtime pay is nice (the 20+ hours from the virus outbreak is very nice). For the people this hits most, it will cost them up to 50% of their annual income. That's right. Half. Most of these people are dockworkers, truck drivers, auto workers, and other skilled people who work in moderately lucrative jobs. If they lose their overtime, they could drop from $60,000 per year to $30,000.
So please contact your Senators and reps to keep this frmo happening. CHeck the info below to do so.
September 4, 2003
You are amazing! In the first 48 hours after we sent
our e-mail alert on Tuesday, you and people like you
sent more than 100,000 faxes to U.S. senators and representatives
urging them to block the Bush overtime pay cuts. This
is fantastic--because this fight is an emergency. In
response to this massive response from people like
you, the Bush White House has just threatened to VETO
LEGISLATION TO PROTECT OVERTIME PAY. To save overtime
pay, the 40-hour workweek and the weekend, we need
you to counter veto power with people power.
Each of us has an e-mail circle--friends, family and
co-workers--we send e-mails to. A new poll shows that
three in four Americans oppose the Bush administration's
proposal. So, chances are the vast majority of your
e-mail circle would act to stop these changes.
If you can, please send ALL of them an e-mail urging
them to take action to protect overtime pay. Even people
who wouldn't usually be interested in this sort of
thing are very concerned about the attack on overtime
pay--but only if they hear about it.
There are two ways you can spread the word.
Send a message to your e-mail circle, using our easy
web form, by clicking below.
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/septovertime/forward/idedxz95wd6
Or, if it is easier, copy and paste the letter below
into an e-mail message that you send to your e-mail
circle. Either way, the goal is to get this call to
action around to as many people as possible.
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Dear Friends,
The Bush administration's cuts in overtime pay and
changes in the rules that are the foundation of the
40-hour workweek and the weekend will soon become law,
unless the U.S. Senate blocks them. More than 8 million
workers could lose their overtime pay and protections
under these changes.
The AFL-CIO has setup a webpage that allows anyone,
union members and nonmembers, to send faxes to their
U.S. senators about this outrageous change. Overtime
work should be compensated with overtime pay. Working
families depend on it. Please click on the link below
to fax your U.S. senators and urge them not to take
away overtime pay from any worker.
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/septovertime/
Thanks!
/\==/\==/\==/\ COPY AND PASTE ABOVE /\==/\==/\==/\
You might also be on some e-mail lists. Send a message
to the people in charge of those lists and ask them
to help.
Together we can win. Thanks for all that you do.