[lakelog]

First of all I'm not a political person at all really and this has nothing to do with who is president or who's running for the seat. I had received an email at the first of the year stating that my husband would be one of millions who would very likely be losing overtime pay at work. For anyone interested in signing the online petition to keep overtime pay, there are links to check out in the email I received this morning: (again, this is not a political stand at all but just wanted to inform anyone interested that this was going on and it will hurt a lot of families who rely on that extra pay after 40 hours of work)

Dear Working Families e-Activist:

Last week we reported to you that the Bush overtime pay take-away is likely to be finalized by President Bush and Labor Secretary Elaine Chao before the end of March. An announcement could come as soon as this Friday.


Now, President Bush's top political allies are attacking efforts to protect overtime pay. They're pressuring television stations not to run TV ads paid for by the MoveOn.org Voter Fund that are critical of Bush's overtime pay take-away. They don't want you to hear what's about to happen to the paychecks of millions of America's workers.


It's more important than ever that you reach out to your friends, family and co-workers to let them know about the Bush overtime pay take-away. Please ask them to sign the Petition to Save Overtime Pay at the link below.
http://www.saveovertimepay.org/


Overtime pay is critical to the well-being of millions of working families--and the Bush administration's paycheck heist must be exposed. You have done a great job of keeping this issue alive. Senators and representatives in Congress have voted right on this issue under pressure from you. Now, the goal is to get the word out to people who haven't signed the petition or haven't heard about what is going on. That is how we'll win.


Please send an e-mail to your friends, family and co-workers. Ask them to sign the Petition to Save Overtime Pay at the link below.
http://www.saveovertimepay.org/


We also suggest you send a short note to other e-mail lists you are on. For example, there may be an e-mail list in your community that allows you to post messages. Think about e-mail lists you are on through a sports team, a hobby club—any way you have access to groups of people who need the opportunity to protect workers' paychecks. These lists are opportunities for you to spread the word. Please forward a note with a link to the petition website.
http://www.saveovertimepay.org/


You can also download a printable petition form to circulate in your workplace, neighborhood or community. Please get as many signatures as you can.
http://www.saveovertimepay.org/petition.htm


The petition has been a huge success. Since last week's update, more than 50,000 new people have signed the Petition to Save Overtime Pay. That only happened because of the outreach you did to protect good jobs and good paychecks. Let's keep it going!


Thanks for all you do. Look for another update soon.


In Solidarity,


Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO
March 9, 2004

[JennPGH]

please check out the regs on the DOL website. in the Moveon.org ads, they show a "laborer" a guy that looks like he works in a shop or something and make it look like he is losing OT pay. When I read the regs it appears not to affect the average "laborer" but more execs and admin people. and the number of people it could affect is no where near the number they portray it to be.
the regs are extremely outdated and needed to be revised.
these ads (moveon.org) come from the same folks who have ads making Bush look like hitler....

[lakelog]

I guess it depends on where you live in the US and what is considered an average laborer in our areas. In its own words, the Bush administration has said that only workers earning less than $23,660 a year would be guaranteed the right to overtime pay. If that doesn't affect your salary then it most likely wouldn't apply. The entire company my husband works for is supporting the issue due to everyone of them making more than $24,000 a year and most, like my husband, work the 12 hour shifts meaning every other week they draw a 48 hour check with 8 hours of it being overtime pay and the other weeks he only gets 36 hour pay. That makes a huge difference on my family of 5 and we really rely on that difference.

Thanks for your comment though. When I approached Suzanne with this a good while back, I didn't think anyone would even pay it any attention.