socialist-economics: Fwd: The Chamber is challenging the rights of 12.5 million workers

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Fwd: The Chamber is challenging the rights of 12.5 million workers

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Economic Policy Institute <newsletter@epi.org>
Date: Wed, Sep 28, 2016 at 11:19 AM
Subject: The Chamber is challenging the rights of 12.5 million workers
To: johnwshc@gmail.com

John,

This week, the U.S. House of Representatives will vote on a bill which would derail President Obama's new overtime rule. But this attack on workers' rights is not limited to Congress.

This month, 21 states and the Chamber of Commerce filed lawsuits against the U.S. Department of Labor challenging the rights of 12.5 million workers' to receive overtime pay and earn a fair living.

It is no surprise that the Chamber of Commerce wants to block overtime pay protections for America's working families. After all, the Chamber opposes the minimum wage, it fought passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act, it tries to prevent passage of sick leave laws, it opposes every major health and safety standard, and it works to make the air we breathe and the nation's waters dirtier.

Donate to the Economic Policy Institute today to oppose these meritless lawsuits and stand up for the rights of working people.

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While the Chamber's opposition to overtime pay is no surprise, the state challenges from Texas, Nevada, and elsewhere appear to be purely politically motivated. EPI's Lawrence Mishel, was quoted in The Dallas Morning News as sarcastically saying of the lawsuits:

"The salary standard also had been raised in the past by 'other communists like George W. Bush and Gerald Ford. It's remarkable that somehow they think it's an overreach, but it's not an overreach when an employer asks a $25,000-a-year employee to work 20 hours of overtime for free?'"

Overtime reform is a key accomplishment in our work to raise the wages of all workers. Please, stand with us today to oppose the Chamber of Commerce and 21 states' meritless lawsuits.

Donate to EPI to protect overtime reform and oppose the Chamber's attempts to undermine workers' rights.

Thank you,

Liz Rose
Director of Communications, EPI

Donate to EPI today