[-jt]

Still trying to stop that overtime elimination bill from becoming law, Congress introduces a new bill to protect the worker's overtime pay:

New York State Nurses Association
Practice and Governmental Affairs

Update: Proposed Federal Overtime Changes

On March 31, 2003 the Bush Administration proposed new Federal labor regulations that would dramatically alter who would be eligible for overtime pay. Under the new Department of Labor regulations, thousands of employees who are currently eligible to receive overtime pay would lose that status.

The American Nurses Association sent a letter to the Department of Labor in opposition to these proposed new regulations. (Read ANA's Capitol Update article on the proposed over-time regulations at http://www.capitolupdate.org/Newslet...id=34&nlaid=43 )

Several attempts have been made by members of Congress to stop the Administration's regulatory proposal. Congressman George Miller (D-CA) and Congressman Dave Obey (D-WI) introduced an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2004 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriation bill that would have blocked the Department of Labor from implementing these new rules on overtime pay.

Though this attempt was narrowly defeated, a new effort to derail the proposed regulations has begun. Congressman Peter King (R-NY) and Congressman George Miller (D-CA) have introduced H.R. 2665 that would bar the Labor Department from excluding any worker who is now eligible for overtime pay.

NYSNA urges you to contact your Congressmen and ask them to co-sponsor and support this new, important bill. (HR 2665)

Visit ANA's legislative action page to find out who represents you in Congress. http://vocusgr.vocus.com/grconvert1/...;Federal+Asset


http://www.nysna.org/programs/leg/alert_5.htm

[gwenith]

Sigh! I feel for you I really do. I never fully appreciated how strong our unions are here in Australia. If they even thought about that here we would stop the country! BANG! NOTHING would move NOTHING would be done - general strike action EVERYONE would walk out.

We would be going down to Canberra in droves and picketting parliment. It seems amazing to me that you have to call for support. Our unions would band together on a issue like this because they would accept that they could be NEXT!!!

What is worrying is that GWB feels so secure in re-election that he is even contemplating this.

[fergus51]

Sadly this will probably affect non-union nurses the most. I have never worked in a union hospital that didn't have OT pay in their contract.

[P_RN]

What I see is a rock and a hard place. Nurses want to be called "Professional?" then they should get straight wages.
Nurses willing to be "pink collar" OK then you can have OverTime.

How much freakin' money do they think they'll save if all the nurses decide just to move on to real estate or lawn services?

[-jt]

The unions are banded together on this issue. Ironic that its the unions that are fighting this bill the hardest & loudest but it isnt even the union workers who would be affected because their contracts provide for overtime pay & they would still get it. The workers who would be lose overtime pay are the non-union workers. Its people who arent even in unions that the unions are fighting for, and still the problem here is that not everyone "believes in" unions.

Gotta say one thing for GWB - he is consistent, if nothing else. The first thing he did by February, after taking office in January, was pass bills that weaken our union labor laws. And he hasnt let up on it ever since.

[caroladybelle]

Originally posted by P_RN
What I see is a rock and a hard place. Nurses want to be called "Professional?" then they should get straight wages.
Nurses willing to be "pink collar" OK then you can have OverTime.

I disagree. Independent MDs get paid more if they are handling more clients. Dentists get paid more if they have a larger practice. Pharmacists get paid per hour in many businesses/hospitals. Are they considered less professional?

If I have any problem, it is with groups that classify RNs as management/administrative, when the vast majority of us do not hire, fire or have any control over staffing.

[oramar]

It is time for all unions accross the nation to do what the Aussie suggested, time for a nation wide strike.

[jnette]

Thanx for the update, -jt. And for the links. Curious to see where it goes from here.

[sjoe]

"How much freakin' money do they think they'll save if all the nurses decide just to move on to real estate or lawn services?"

A LOT, since this would strengthen the arguments behind their lobbying efforts in DC to open the floodgates even wider to foreign nurses willing to work non-union, for low wages, and at the beck and call of administration.

"The unions are banded together on this issue. Ironic that its the unions that are fighting this bill the hardest & loudest but it isnt even the union workers who would be affected because their contracts provide for overtime pay & they would still get it."

Union contracts ALL expire at some point. If unions wouldn't go along with the facility's demand to remove the OT clauses, a change in ownership (like a buyout by Tenet or some newly-formed "paper" entity, e.g.) would easily throw out the contract AND the union.

In conjuction with the increased availabilty of foreign nurses as suggested above (and discussed in numerous other threads on this BB), these facilities would be able to do as they wished. They have little reason to do otherwise.

Unions and union members have every reason to be seriously concerned.

[fergus51]

I do expect hospitals to attempt to get rid of OT in union contracts, but I can't see that actually succeeding.