Republicans Cancel Vote to Repeal Overtime Pay: For Now

June 6, 2003

The big business attack on overtime pay has been temporarily put “on hold” as the efforts of hundreds of thousands of working people have stalled a final vote in the House of Representatives. The Republican House leadership withdrew the bill (HR.1119) from the Congressional calendar on June 4th, when it became obvious that the full-court lobbying push by union members and allies had prevented the possibility of passage of the legislation. While postponed, the legislation is not dead. The forces pushing the repeal of overtime pay are back at the drawing board, and the next likely vote could come sometime later this summer or by early fall.

The separate push by the Bush Administration to unilaterally deny overtime pay coverage to potentially millions of working people continues to move forward, however. The Bush Labor Department is busy engineering new regulations that would re-classify upwards of several million workers - including computer professionals, nurses, sales workers, customer service workers, low-level “managers”, and others - into categories exempting them from coverage by the overtime provisions of the federal law.

“I want to commend all the UE members who are doing their part to defend overtime pay. And I ask you to keep up the pressure on both the Congress and the White House. We are defending our most basic rights as working people, and I urge you again to stay vigilant on this critical issue” commented UE General Secretary-Treasurer Bruce Klipple. Contact your lawmakers by visiting; www.senate.gov and www.house.gov You may view the text of the legislation (HR.1119/S.319) at these sites also. Write them at; Representative_____, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C., 20515 and Senator_____, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C., 20510 Make phone calls to both at (202)224-3121. To contact the White House, write; President George W. Bush, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20500 or visit www.whitehouse.gov

Make your opinion heard on this critical issue. Tell Congress to drop the overtime repeal legislation, and tell President Bush to stop trying to rip-off working people with secretive changes to overtime regulations. More information on this is also available on this web site in previous updates.