Thursday, August 26, 2004
Sorry... I’ve been running a bit late of late...
A WTPU Council Rep friend and I had a short "Instant Message" conversation at work the other day. To make a short story even shorter, she gave me a polite dig that the ‘blog was sprouting cobwebs of late.
Well, she’s right and now that I’ve distanced myself far enough from the fight with Management I’ve been in for the past nine months -- that didn’t end the way I’d desired -- I guess I’m comfortable enough to start posting again, knowing that any anger y’all may read in my words here is current, fresh whine and not just old, sour grapes.
Not that there’s gonna be any anger toward my employer in this message... all I’ve got here is an opinion on the Bush Administration’s Labor Department’s new rules on overtime.
For those not such the "Labor Union" news junkie as I, the folks President Bush appointed to the Labor Department have recently decided to redefine which classes of employees are guaranteed the right to "time-and-a-half" overtime protections of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.
Translated, that means the Bush Administration has just dictated the Largest Middle-Class Paycut in our country’s history; it’s been estimated that up to 6,000,000 -- six freakin’ MILLION -- workers will be affected by this change in interpreting the 70 year old law, denying them the overtime pay they’ve been earning for working more than a 40-hour workweek.
There could be catastrophic impact elsewhere in our communities; the overworked nursing profession seems to be a contention across the country. While not as severe as it will be to those, impact to workers at Boeing could be nearly as significant.
The broadest impact to Boeing workers would mean that the Company would decide to, once again, adjust our "exempt/non-exempt" (from FLSA time-and-a-half OT protection) jobcodes, moving some employees from Paycode 2 to PC6.
In Wichita, that would mean some WTPU "tech" employees’ overtime rate would be reduced from time-and-a-half to the contract-guaranteed time-plus-six-fifty PC6s get. Fortunately, for these SPEEA-represented PC2s, their involuntary transfer into the PC6 ranks just changes their overtime wage rate; the poor folks in similar boats in Seattle lose every protection a union contract affords.
You see, in SPEEA-NW, the only folks SPEEA represents are the PC4 Engineers and a few "technical" PC2 jobcodes; other PC2 jobs and _all_ PC6 jobs are unrepresented.
So, for some soon-to-be-"exempt" SPEEA Tech employees in the Northwest, the Government just took away their "workforce" grievance protections. That and everything else a contract guarantees.
-- Bill, who’s life’s finally getting back to what is his norma... uh, "usual" self...
Well, she’s right and now that I’ve distanced myself far enough from the fight with Management I’ve been in for the past nine months -- that didn’t end the way I’d desired -- I guess I’m comfortable enough to start posting again, knowing that any anger y’all may read in my words here is current, fresh whine and not just old, sour grapes.
Not that there’s gonna be any anger toward my employer in this message... all I’ve got here is an opinion on the Bush Administration’s Labor Department’s new rules on overtime.
For those not such the "Labor Union" news junkie as I, the folks President Bush appointed to the Labor Department have recently decided to redefine which classes of employees are guaranteed the right to "time-and-a-half" overtime protections of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.
Translated, that means the Bush Administration has just dictated the Largest Middle-Class Paycut in our country’s history; it’s been estimated that up to 6,000,000 -- six freakin’ MILLION -- workers will be affected by this change in interpreting the 70 year old law, denying them the overtime pay they’ve been earning for working more than a 40-hour workweek.
There could be catastrophic impact elsewhere in our communities; the overworked nursing profession seems to be a contention across the country. While not as severe as it will be to those, impact to workers at Boeing could be nearly as significant.
The broadest impact to Boeing workers would mean that the Company would decide to, once again, adjust our "exempt/non-exempt" (from FLSA time-and-a-half OT protection) jobcodes, moving some employees from Paycode 2 to PC6.
In Wichita, that would mean some WTPU "tech" employees’ overtime rate would be reduced from time-and-a-half to the contract-guaranteed time-plus-six-fifty PC6s get. Fortunately, for these SPEEA-represented PC2s, their involuntary transfer into the PC6 ranks just changes their overtime wage rate; the poor folks in similar boats in Seattle lose every protection a union contract affords.
You see, in SPEEA-NW, the only folks SPEEA represents are the PC4 Engineers and a few "technical" PC2 jobcodes; other PC2 jobs and _all_ PC6 jobs are unrepresented.
So, for some soon-to-be-"exempt" SPEEA Tech employees in the Northwest, the Government just took away their "workforce" grievance protections. That and everything else a contract guarantees.
-- Bill, who’s life’s finally getting back to what is his norma... uh, "usual" self...
