State Green Party Press Release

Pacific Green Party Denounces Bush Move to Cut Overtime.

PACIFIC GREEN PARTY OF OREGON PRESS RELEASE
PGP: http://www.pacificgreens.org

April 23, 2004.

Contacts: Joanne Cvar, Co-Chair and Media Coordinator, 541-563-3615 cvar@oregonvos.net
Liz Trojan, Co-Chair, 503-246-7850 elizat8@pobox.com
Jay Berger, PGP Media Team, AgnosticAnarchist@atheistnetwork.net

The Bush administration has formally introduced new rules that will make millions of people ineligible for overtime protection when they work more than forty hours per week, this despite the fact that bipartisan majorities in both houses have voted against rolling back overtime.

"It's outrageous," said Betsy Cunningham, workers' rights advocate and PGP Coordinating Committee member, "and completely typical of the sort of disregard for working families that has exemplified this administration from the very beginning."

The platform of the Green Party of the United States is very specific on this point: "A clear living wage standard should serve as a foundation for trade between nations, and a 'floor' of wage protections and workers' rights should be negotiated and set in place in future trade agreements. The United States should take the lead on this front; and not allow destructive, corporate predatory practices under the guise of 'free' international trade." http://www.gp.org/platform.html

The rules that have been introduced would take away overtime pay from workers earning as little as $23,660 a year. This would be a huge pay cut for potentially millions of working Americans and their families. It would actually stymie job creation by encouraging employers to heap more hours on the workers they already have rather than hiring new ones.

Mitch Besser, candidate for the PGP nomination to run against Darlene Hooley for House District 5, adds: "Overtime regulations should serve two purposes: reward the hard-working Americans that have jobs and encourage businesses to hire additional staff when needed. This bill does neither." (bessermt@yahoo.com)

The Pacific Green Party urges everyone to immediately contact their congresspeople and local media outlets and voice their opposition to this latest expression of the Bush administration's anti-worker agenda.