July 10, 2003
TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Dear Representative:
On behalf of the 1.4 million members of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), I strongly urge your vote for the Obey amendment to H.R. 2660, the FY 2004 Labor, HHS, and Education Appropriations bill. The Obey amendment would prevent the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) from issuing any regulation that takes away workers’ overtime rights. This amendment is based upon bipartisan legislation (H.R. 2665) introduced Monday by Representatives Peter King (R-NY) and George Miller (D-CA).
For more than 60 years, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) has provided important income protection to workers. The regulatory proposal by DOL, while portrayed as simple modernizing and updating, is actually the most sweeping regulatory proposal in FLSA in decades. Not only would millions of workers lose overtime protection (more than eight million, according to the Economic Policy Institute), millions more would be affected resulting in longer hours with less pay. In addition, those workers retaining their coverage would lose overtime hours to the newly reclassified, who would be uncompensated for their overtime hours. Even DOL admits that some workers would lose coverage, though they believe that the impact will be less.
DOL has argued that their proposal would guarantee overtime protection to more than a million low-wage workers who currently may be considered exempt. This fig leaf relies on the dubious view that there are, in fact, minimum wage workers who are exempt. By almost every measure, the workers that DOL is representing as potentially benefitting from this proposal should already be covered. In short, DOL has both exaggerated the benefits and minimized the impact.
Congress should not ignore the important policy implications of this regulatory proposal. The Obey amendment would make clear that DOL could "update the salary threshold" and "clarify the duties tests" in ways that do not take away workers’ overtime rights. But it would prevent DOL from using the guise of "clarity" as an excuse to take away the overtime rights of more than eight million workers.
This will be an historic vote. For the 108th Congress, this will be the opportunity to protect overtime for millions of workers or to toss it aside. We strongly urge your support for the Obey amendment.
Thank you for your consideration of this import message. We look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
Pat Scarcelli
International Vice President
Director, Legislative and Political Affairs Department
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