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Category Archives: News

Tell Congress: “Don’t mess with the 40-hour workweek. Hands off my overtime!”

Congress is trying to push through legislation that would allow employers to stop giving workers overtime pay.

Click Here (http://nysaflcio.org/overtime/) To Sign and SHARE PETITION: Hands off my 40 hour work week!

The House of Representatives has renewed its decades-old attack on the 40-hour workweek. Once again, some members of Congress are pushing so-called “comp time” legislation that would allow employers to stop giving workers any extra pay for overtime work.

H.R. 1406, the so-called “Working Families Flexibility Act” would take away “Overtime Pay” and replace it with “Comp Time”.   This bill is not about providing employees with greater flexibility, but rather about providing employers with greater flexibility to not pay overtime!

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) established the 40-hour workweek to allow employees to spend more time away from work and encourage employers to hire more staff when workloads increase. The “Working Families Flexibility Act” however would encourage employers to demand longer hours because it would allow employers to receive the benefits of overtime work at no additional cost. Employers could pay workers nothing at all for overtime when the work is performed, and schedule “compensatory time” only at their convenience. Under H.R. 1406, mandatory overtime would become cheaper for employers and result in more unpredictable work schedules and higher day care costs for workers.

Send the letter below to your congressperson today!

A Story Worth Re-Posting – Why Does Mayor Nutter Hate Unions So Much?

Ask AFSCME DC’s #33 & #47, the Philadelphia Fire Fighters’ Union and the Philadelphia Police Department/FOP — is there any city union or just any union in this city that Mayor Nutter doesn’t have a problem with?

Here’s a little advice in case he’s wondering. If the Mayor doesn’t want large crowds showing up at City Hall and interrupting his speeches, he should try working with people instead of against them. Being at odds with one or two organizations in the course of a four year term is typical, but all four organizations on a constant basis? Well then, it brings up the question that is on everyone’s mind: Why Does Mayor Nutter Hate Unions So Much?

Is it because he’s against collective bargaining, or the 40-hour work week, fair wages or benefits or the other conditions that unions have achieved that have made them the voice of the middle class in America?

Is it because he didn’t get union support during his initial mayoral campaign as area unions split their vote among several other of the candidates and the Mayor walked on in under the union community’s radar?

Here we have a lame duck Democratic mayor in a largely Democratic city who doesn’t have to worry about re-election or setting the table for his party to ensure the next Mayor is a Democrat, so what does he really have to lose, right?

Well, maybe the legacy of his administration, which will be over soon enough, thankfully, and which will go down in the minds of working families as one of the least popular in the history of Philadelphia.

Point of information to our Philadelphia area unions: unlike the first time Nutter won, the next time we have a mayoral election, let’s please unite in solidarity together to support the one candidate who best supports and respects our union standards before we get stuck with another nutter like this mutter!!

New PhillyLabor.com Website Live

PhillyLabor.com is proud to announce the launch of our brand new website here at www.phillylabor.com which will provide all kinds of new features to our Philadelphia area labor community including daily union news updates via our PhillyLabor News Blog, links to our Injured Workers advocacy Program which provides assistance and resources to workers injured on the job, our Pro-Union Label program/Directory which provides a centralized and convenient guide for area union members to find union friendly businesses and professionals as well as our Union Protest list which is a list of companies and entities who are being protested by area unions. You can also find links to our social media resources and much more….

We welcome everyone to stop back daily to the new PhillyLabor.com website and stay plugged in to the Philadelphia area labor movement!

Enjoy!

PhillyLabor.com

UPDATE: Anti-Prevailing Wage Legislation Approved By House Labor & Industry Committee

April 16, 2013 | PA. AFL-CIO

CLICK HERE TO E-MAIL YOUR STATE REPRESENTATIVE – http://act.aflcio.org/c/236/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=6176

Today the House Labor and Industry Committee voted two anti-prevailing wage bills out of committee so that they may be considered by the full house.  These were just two of a large package of new anti-prevailing wage bills that have been introduced this session, and represent a bold new set of attacks on workers by this misguided anti-worker agenda.  We have already seen that this legislature is willing to pass anti-worker legislation, as demonstrated by the recent vote to privatize the state Wine and Spirits stores.

As a unified labor movement, we must draw a line in the sand.  We must continue to fight the privatization battle in the state senate and win; we must make our voices clearly heard in the state house on prevailing wage; and we must leave no doubt that right-to-work is a non-starter in Pennsylvania.  We must do all of these things as a united labor movement, and prove to those who would take away our rights that they will not succeed in their ‘divide and conquer’ strategy.

CLICK HERE (http://act.aflcio.org/c/236/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=6176) to e-mail your state legislator today, tell them to oppose HB 665, HB 796, and any other anti-prevailing wage legislation that comes before the state house.  Share this page with your friends, co-workers, neighbors, and social networks and encourage them to join you in opposing this latest attack on middle class working families.

Here is a look at the current prevailing wage bills that have been voted through committee:

HB 665 would change the definitions of “construction” and “maintenance” projects, so that more public projects would be classified as “maintenance” and therefore be exempt from prevailing wage laws.  “Maintenance” projects under this proposed legislation would include full replacement of guide rails, curbs, pipes and other road  equipment as well as repaving up to 3 1/2 inches of road surface, including associated milling.  This would exempt a huge number of construction crews from prevailing  wage protections.

HB 796 would amend the Prevailing Wage Act to raise the threshold from $25,000 to $100,000 for projects that would be subject to prevailing wage laws.  This bill is a transparent effort to undermine prevailing wage laws in Pennsylvania, which have protected workers from exploitative labor practices for generations.

These bills represent a misguided attack on workers by contractors who are more concerned with having a low-wage workforce than providing the Commonwealth with quality products and services.

A number of other bills attacking prevailing wage laws have been introduced and referred to the House Labor and Industry Committee, including:

HB 63 (F. Keller) which would increase the threshold for public works projects to $190,000 adjusted annually with increases in CPI;
HB 590 (Baker) which would exempt work performed on projects by or on behalf of a health care facility or any entity subject to Article IX of the Public welfare Code;
HB 662 (Milne) which would exempt work on any historic property or any property maintained by a land trust operating under the Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund Act;
HB 664 (Marsico) which would exclude political subdivisions from the Pennsylvania Prevailing Wage Act and allow a political subdivision to elect to place itself within the jurisdiction of the Act by ordinance or resolution;
HB 666 (Marsico) which would opt school districts out of certain prevailing wage requirements, and provide for opt-in referenda;
HB 999 (Marsico) would exempt any project in a keystone opportunity zone from the Pennsylvania Prevailing Wage Act;
HB 1095 (Bloom) which would amend the Pennsylvania Prevailing Wage Act and provide that it have no application from June 30, 2013 through July 1, 2016;
HB 1155 (Miller) would require the Secretary of Labor and Industry to require contractors, trustees, or third parties managing benefit payments under a collective bargaining agreement to maintain and provide records of such benefits to the Secretary;
HB 1191 (Delozier) Which would raise the threshold for projects from $25,000 to $500,000 with an annual adjustment thereafter.