Related Articles
Related Articles
September 2003 IBEW Journal A Relentless Series of Attacks on Worker Rights Made the Summer One of the Worst Seasons in Recent Labor History. The Fight is Not Over. The summer of 2003 was anything but a day at the beach for working families in the United States. Workers have found themselves fighting to protect principles like the eight-hour day, the basic health of the Medicare system and prevailing wage laws, all while enduring high unemployment and reduced prospects for finding work. Taken alone, each of the issues discussed below would present a major challenge to the labor movement. Taken together, they represent a tidal wave threatening to swamp the gains made by working people over the course of generations. "I dont believe that it is a coincidence that we are facing so many struggles at one time," said IBEW International President Ed Hill. "Our enemies are trying to overwhelm us, but they are underestimating the resolve of the IBEW and the entire labor movement." The battles over these issues raged throughout the summer, and most are still unresolved. Recent months also saw collective bargaining in the industries where IBEW members work marked by bitterness, anger and confrontation. Truly this was the summer of labors discontent. In this issue, the IBEW Journal examines the legislative and regulatory attacks that working people face. The next issue will contain a summary of the difficult negotiations IBEW faced over the summer and into the fall. DOL Targets Overtime Pay
The DOL rules place in jeopardy the principle of the 40-hour week enshrined in the Fair Labor Standards Act, which for generations has been an accepted and respected standard. The DOL rules dovetailed with legislation introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives last spring. But after a vigorous grassroots effort by labor activists, House leaders pulled the bill from consideration when it became clear they would lose. Presently, employers covered by the federal law are required to pay time-and-a-half to eligible workers logging over 40 hours. Those workers exempted from the overtime law include many, but not all, workers in professional and managerial occupations. The proposed rules would make the criteria to determine overtime eligibility overly broad and vague and could result in as many as 8 million workers losing their right to extra pay for more than 40 hours of work. Workers covered by a collective bargaining agreement that provides overtime pay would not be affected by the rules. However, if the regulations take effect, they would create a significant cost advantage for nonunion employers and put additional pressure on unions during contract negotiations to accept reduced overtime pay. America (not) at Work
In June unemployment reached 6.4 percent, the highest level in more than nine years. Even though the figure abated to 6.2 percent in July, 11 million Americans were still out of work; job prospects remained bleak for millions, and wage levels remained stagnant. Each day unemployment benefits expire for more Americans. Recession-plagued businesses continue to cut jobs, particularly in IBEW-represented industries of manufacturing and telecommunications. All this is happening at a time of increased productivity, a measure that is supposed to bring good times. Manufacturings Continued Decline
"Americas able industrial complex is the backbone of our country and small towns, cities and states depend on it," said IBEW Secretary-Treasurer Jerry OConnor. "When we export jobs and import billions more dollars in goods than we sell, we shortchange America while subsidizing worker abuses overseas." The decline of manufacturing also has an impact on other IBEW-represented industries, resulting in fewer jobs in new construction and maintenance, reduced demand for electric power, fewer goods shipped by railroad, less demand for telecommunications products and services, and a reduced tax base for communities. On the Wrong Track with Trade The decline of Americas manufacturing base has coincided with the ballooning of the trade deficitthe difference between what the United States exports and what it imports. When the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was enacted in 1994, companies moved production overseas, tipping a trade imbalance that would only worsen with each new trade pact. The $9 billion annual deficit exploded to $83 billion last year, and the trade deals keep coming.
In late July, the House of Representatives and the Senate passed the first trade deals negotiated under the "fast track" authority that allows the president to enter into international pacts without interference from lawmakers. To the disappointment of labor activists, a deal to liberalize trade with Singapore was quickly followed by another with Chile. Under fast track, Congress votes either for or against the pacts, but cannot amend them. Workers rights clauses in the two agreements are weaker than those in existing U.S. agreements with other countries. The Bush administration hopes for enactment of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) by 2005. Labor advocates call the FTAA "NAFTA on steroids" for its incorporation of most of the Western Hemisphere into a new trade zone that includes the United States, Mexico and Canada as well as 31 additional countries in Central and South America. Intended as one of the most far-reaching trade agreements in history, FTAA goes far beyond the scope of NAFTA. FTAA would encourage companies to move production facilities to countries with even lower wages, contributing to a hemisphere-wide downward spiraling of wages. Particularly poor Latin American and Caribbean countries like Haiti would become home to more sweatshops and the environmental degradation that accompanies industrial development is likely to follow. A Medicare Cure
That Medicare needs to include prescription drugs is unquestionable. But the plans, one in the House of Representatives and one in the Senate, could actually make the situation worse by providing totally inadequate levels of coverage and foisting much of the financial responsibility onto seniors. Congress betrayed its own bill when members in July voted to exempt themselves from the provisions of the legislation they crafted to help seniors. The Senate proposal saddles retirees with huge out-of-pocket expenses by indexing their payments to the prices drug companies charge, would bounce them around between various private insurance companies and discriminates against retirees with employer-sponsored health benefits. Even proponents acknowledge that the plan would encourage employers to drop retirees from their plans. Legislation passed by the House is worse. It includes a provision that would force beneficiaries to leave the government-run Medicare system to enroll in an HMO (health maintenance organization), and another that requires seniors to choose between giving up their doctor or facing higher premiums to stay in Medicare. The House bill would eventually dismantle the traditional Medicare system entirely, placing it in the hands of private health plans. Under both bills, the drug coverage doesnt fully cover beneficiaries until an individuals expenses reach up to $6,000. |
|
Paychecks
of more than 8 million workers in the United States may be at
risk by years end if the Department of Labor imposes new rules
on how employers may compensate those who work overtime.
Despite
tax cuts and other economic policies designed to create jobs and
jump-start a faltering economy, chronic unemployment continues.
Between January 2001 and January 2003, the United States has lost
1.6 million jobs, according to figures from the U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics. 
A
two-year downhill skid continues as the United States sheds manufacturing
jobs at an alarming rate, thanks to unfair trade policies and
government coddling of multinational companies. Last year, 600,000
industrial jobs were lost, and manufacturing employment is down
2.5 million since 1998. Manufacturing jobs traditionally pay better
and provide superior benefits than jobs in other sectors, making
it all but impossible for laid off workers to find comparable
work. 
Not
only are trade imbalances harmful to the economy, they threaten
national security if defense materials must be imported, effectively
leaving other countries in charge of Americas domestic security.
Congress
is considering legislation that would address what has increasingly
become an unacceptable failing of the federal health care program
for seniors: the lack of a Medicare prescription drug benefit.
But seniors need more help than the inadequate offerings the Bush
administration and the Republican-controlled Congress have produced.