USW Local 2-232

formerly PACE 7-232

Representing  employees at Briggs & Stratton Corp. and Strattec Security Corp. in Milwaukee, WI

Season's Greetings 

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Membership Meeting 

Sunday January 18, 2009

Frank Monreal's El Matador

9155 W. Bluemound Rd. Milwaukee 

9:30a.m.

Nomination and Election will take place for Recording Secretary to fill the vacancy of Karen Clark, who is retiring January 1, 2009

Nominations will take place for the following positions:

Trustee at Large, Strattec Grievance Rep, Briggs Grievance Rep, 2 Briggs Bargaining Committee Members

   Members are urged to Attend this Meeting.

Workers' Rights Threatened in GOP Leaders' Minimum-Wage Proposal

           With overwhelming public support and mounting political pressure to pass a minimum-wage increase, House Republican leaders have proposed to increase the $5.15 minimum wage by $1 an hour in two annual 50-cent increments. But there's a catch. The proposed deal would roll back overtime and other wage protections for workers, and it would allow special interest tax breaks.

          House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) is insisting upon $76 billion in business tax breaks. He also wants to lift Fair Labor Standards Act protections for certain sales workers, computer professionals and others, eliminating their right to overtime pay; and he wants to weaken other portions of the FLSA.

          The FLSA is the nation's bedrock wage and hour law, which protects tens of millions of workers and their families. But Hastert's proposal would seriously erode those protections by:

• Cutting overtime pay by changing the FLSA's "bonus" pay rules used to calculate a worker's regular rate of pay. Employers then could use a lower base pay rate to calculate how much to pay workers for overtime at the time-and-a-half rate.

• Stripping away minimum-wage and overtime protections from certain inside sales workers—employees who work on the employer's worksite. Estimated as many as 2.5 million workers could be affected.

• Expanding the FLSA's overtime exemption for certain computer professionals to cover even more workers in computer-related jobs, some earning as little as $13,000 a year. The Communications Workers of America estimates as many as 50,000 of its members could be affected.

• Exempting funeral directors and embalmers from FLSA protections. Currently, many embalmers and many funeral directors are covered by the FLSA.

• Barring states from banning so-called tip credit rules or making laws that would require employers to pay higher guaranteed wages to workers who receive tips than is now required under the FLSA. The FLSA requires employers to pay just $2.13 an hour to tipped workers, such as waiters and waitresses, under the theory that a worker's tips make up the difference. A few states bar tip credits altogether and require employers to pay the full minimum wage, while others set a higher floor.

          While these changes would drastically reduce overtime pay for millions of workers, they would also make overtime a less costly proposition to employers, removing one of the most important tools that workers and regulators have to discourage employers from imposing mandatory overtime and requiring excessive hours at work.

          "Congress should not use the cover of giving raises to some workers to take away overtime pay from others," President Clinton said. He urged Congress to pass the $1-an-hour minimum-wage bill without weakening the FLSA protections.