Some of the most important employment protections for working families today are part of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which sets minimum standards for wages and overtime compensation. Under the FLSA's overtime rules, nearly 80 million workers must now be paid time-and-a-half for more than 40 hours of work a week. The FLSA sets out overtime pay requirements so employees cannot be required to work overtime without any additional pay.
Five bills have been proposed by Republican Members of Congress and the Administration has also sought rule changes that seek to gut those laws.
Under the Bush Administration's proposal, workers, including police officers, nurses, store supervisors and many others, could face unpredictable work schedules and reduced pay because of an increased demand for extra hours for which employers would not have to compensate workers. The administration is pushing to issue final regulations before the end of the year and has even threatened to veto important appropriation legislation if they include protections for these workers.
Since taking office in 2001, the Bush Administration has attempted to roll back the rights of federal employees. The Administration began their attack by announcing they planned to "shrink" the size of government by privatizing 850,000 federal jobs, eliminating these jobs by contracting them to the private sector. Last year, during the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, the Administration demanded and won legislation that eliminated the collective bargaining rights of 170,000 current federal workers. Early this year, the Administration eliminated the collective bargaining rights of baggage screeners as they came under the jurisdiction of the new Transportation Security Administration. In January 2002, the Administration revoked union representation for over 500 Department of Justice employees, days before the Assistant U.S. Attorneys in Miami were scheduled to vote on unionization. This Administration is also attempting to privatize Air Traffic Control at numerous airports around the country, something has not worked at all when it has been tried in Europe.
The Bush Administration's anti-labor actions are examples of bad governance resulting bad government. This Administration doesn't understand the concept of inherent government functions. Their heavy emphasis on privatization is partly to blame for the Columbia tragedy. Privatizing inherently government functions leads to shortcuts, which endangers both astronauts and the public at large. In Iraq, the Administration has awarded no bid contracts to Halliburton, the company which Vice president Cheney was the CEO of before assuming office, worth nearly $1.7 billion dollars, to house and feed soldiers, to deliver mail, and provide other military logistics. These are inherently government functions which should be handled by the US military. Contracting these services to private companies may eliminate short term manpower issues, but they serve to highlight the case that the military does not have the manpower to fulfill its mission independently. Contracting government functions to private companies just doesn't get the job done.
Nearly 2.4 million jobs have been lost since Bush assumed power. His agenda can be summed up in two words, bankrupt government. The President has pushed numerous tax cuts through the Republican controlled House and Senate, turning a $1.7 trillion dollar surplus under the Clinton Administration into a $1.7 trillion dollar deficit in a little over two years. Cutting government revenue while ever increasing deficit spending is a formula for disaster. The President has recently requested another $87 billion dollars for rebuilding Iraq. Last month the American Society fo Civil Engineers estimated that the United States needs nearly $1.6 trillion dollars in order to modernize America's existing infrastructure (schools, roads, bridges, power grid, sewers, and drinking water). Investing in America's infrastructure would assure good America jobs for years to come.
Since Bush took office in 2001, the United States economy has lost over 2.4 million jobs. In Michigan, we have lost one in every six manufacturing jobs. In an effort to get our economy back on track, Congressman Conyers and the Michigan Democratic Delegation, sent a 14 point proposal to President Bush and Governor Granholm, detailing steps they believe are necessary to stem the flood of job loses in the manufacturing sector. These include addressing the legacy costs of our manufacturing industries by reforming our pension system, ensuring that workers receive the benefits they have worked for, and enacting a real prescription drug benefit for retirees. The delegation also asked the Administration to help to level the international business field, by enforcing existing trade laws, opening markets like Japan and China which block our exports, addressing currency manipulation, and creating a manufacturing tax credit. President Bush recently declared he would create a new position to focus on the manufacturing sector. Michigan's manufacturing industry needs real resources and real action from the federal government, not rhetorical flourishes and the re-arranging of bureaucratic titles.