Thank you to all the members and volunteers that supported us in the recent ballot campaign thanks to your efforts crucial Propositions were defeated!

Special Thanks to our volunteers who have helped so far Luis Aceves, Dimas Cuevas, Joe Fernandez, Jim Homer, Carlos Lujan, Francisco Mexicano, David Ortiz, Jesus M Perez, Luis Rios, Quintin Y Aguilar, Al Bennett, Manuel Velasco, Joe Corona, Alfonso Martin, Tim McCormick, Mario A. Delgado, Diego Auistan, Jamie Viera, and Rebecca Rodarte.

Overtime

Through Labor Department rule-making, the Bush Administration has eliminated overtime pay for hundreds of thousands of workers. The new rules reclassify many employees as executive or administrative employees exempt from receiving overtime pay.

After receiving hundreds of thousands of messages from angry workers and facing Congressional action to halt the overtime cuts, the Bush Administration revised its proposed rule in April.

However, the revised rule still cuts overtime pay for many workers earning as little as $23,660. The rule revisions also encourage employers to raise pay just above the threshold to avoid overtime pay or reclassify jobs – meaning large pay-cuts for many workers. In addition, working foremen, who now receive overtime pay, may be determined to be exempt.

Status: The Labor Department has released its final rule, and it has taken effect.

Laborers Action Needed: Remind fellow Laborers of this harmful act by the Bush Administration.
Employee Free Choice Act

Tens of thousands of Laborers would join our union if employers didn’t legally and illegally block them from joining together.

The Employee Free Choice Act would help ensure that workers are free to form unions by allowing them demonstrate majority support by a show of signed authorization cards, rather than the National Labor Relations Board process, which is fraught with delays and employer manipulation and abuse.

In addition, the Act would strengthen penalties against employers for breaking labor law, and allows workers to take efforts to win a first contract to mediation and arbitration.

Status: The Act is currently pending in the U.S. Senate and House as it gathers sponsors.

Laborers Action Needed: Tell your member of Congress to support the Employee Free Choice Act.

Safe, Orderly Legal Visas and Enforcement Act

The Safe, Orderly Legal Visas and Enforcement Act would ensure that immigrant workers have wage protections, enforceable labor law rights, the freedom to change jobs and a direct path to citizenship.

Unlike the Bush Administration immigration proposal – which would open immigrant workers, and all workers, to more employer exploitation – the bill would protect immigrant workers’ rights to workers’ compensation and prevailing wages. The bill would also allow backpay as a remedy to employer labor law violations, reversing the Hoffman Plastic decision made by the Bush Supreme Court.

The Laborers’ Union has commended Sen. Edward Kennedy and Reps. Robert Menendez and Luis Guiterrez for sponsoring the bill.

Laborers are concerned about the parts of the bill expanding H-2b visas, creating a new H-1d guest worker program and its employer recruitment requirements, and will vigorously attempt to improve those parts as the legislation moves through Congress.

Status: Introduced in May 2004; likely to be reintroduced in 2005 when the 109th Congress begins.

Laborers Action Needed: No immediate action, upcoming action expected

Working Families Matter

Why Union Members Should Care About Social Security

SOCIAL SECURITY PROTECTS FAMILIES when a worker retires, becomes disabled or dies. Even though many union members--unlike other workers--have good pensions and other benefits, Social Security is still important to them and their families.

Social Security provides important family protections that aren't available elsewhere. Social Security pays increased benefits to meet the needs of families. In particular, a worker's spouse and children are eligible for valuable dependent benefits when a worker retires or becomes disabled and survivors benefits when a worker dies. And unlike many privately negotiated benefits, these protections follow workers and their families from job to job.

The average pension isn't enough to fully fund retirement. Most pension plans are built around Social Security as a secure starting point. Maintaining a decent standard of living during retirement generally requires Social Security and personal savings, in addition to a pension.

Social Security protects retirees against rising costs. Social Security adjusts benefits every year to account for increases in the cost of living. Very few pension plans provide this guarantee.

Social Security benefits don't run out. Other forms of retirement income, such as a 401(k) or an IRA, can be spent before you and your spouse die. Once you spend that money, it's gone. Social Security is there for you throughout your retirement. And it provides workers with the assurance that if they become disabled or die, their income will be significantly replaced for themselves and their dependents for as long as they are eligible.

Social Security must change in the future, but the wrong kind of change-such as substituting individual accounts for Social Security's guaranteed benefits and simultaneously raising retirement ages-could threaten union members' pension benefits. Most of our negotiated pensions build on the foundation of Social Security. If Social Security weren't there, or if its benefits were cut, negotiated pensions would not automatically make up the difference-which means most union retirees could suffer big drops in retirement income. The need to raise negotiated pension benefits to make up for the loss or reduction of Social Security would place a heavy burden on collective bargaining, leaving little if any opportunity to negotiate for wage increases or other important economic improvements in our contracts.

Social Security is needed now more than ever. In recent years, many employers have cut back on or even eliminated "defined-benefit" pension plans, which pay guaranteed benefits for life, and replaced them with "defined-contribution" plans, such as 401(k)s, which provide no such guarantee. Workers who have lost their defined-benefit pension plans need Social Security now more than ever.