Thursday, July 20, 2017

Trump set to institute Wage Slavery via the NLRB and his Department of Forced Labor

The property which every man has in his own labour, as it is the original foundation of all other property, so it is the most sacred and inviolable - Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations
More people getting paid for overtime work sounds great, but... Speaker Paul Ryan illustrates how more money for American Workers is bad because when Americans are financially secure they vote for a Democratic Socialist Government but, when reduced to penury by Republican policies they elect reactionary Republicans.

One of the most pernicious lies promulgated about President Obama's tenure was he did nothing for the working class. President Obama's National Labor Relations Board and head of the Department of Labor Tom Perez, increased protections and aggressively defended workers while punishing employers who conducted wage theft.

President Obama and his Labor Department passed regulations changing the ceiling mandating overtime pay but, a Federal Judge in Texas held up the overtime rule back in December. Now, traitor Trump and his Department of Forced Labor will undo it completely as well as undercutting American workers on several other avenues.

Under the President Obama's Department of Labor rules, salaried employees earning less than $47,476 annually would have automatically received overtime pay when they work more than 40 hours in a week, double the current $23,660 ceiling. More than 4 million workers would have earned an estimated extra $12 billion over the next decade. As Vice President Joe Biden correctly noted last year, "It is based on a simple proposition. If you work overtime, you should actually get paid for working overtime."

This, of course, enraged Republicans, who responded with predictable Pavlovian frothing at the mouth fury. Actually, paying workers is antithetical to the Republican Party.  Trump especially doesn't pay people who work for him, as thousands of contractors and former FBI head James Comey found out.

In many ways Traitor Trump, is a bog standard Republican, he hates paying workers and uses the awesome power of the Federal Government to ensure he doesn't have to. The Republican Plan to screw over workers works like this; an employee works 60 hours (20 hours overtime) but instead of being paid time-and-a-half, the 20 hours goes into a bank of compensated time (CT), which theoretically the worker could use as paid time off or as pay at the end of the fiscal year. What really happens is the CT builds up for years and the employee never gets time off and never gets paid.

But, Trump and his Forced Labor Department are just getting started.  In addition, to making overtime an unpaid "benefit" of working in the U.S.  The Department of Forced Labor is also set to do the following:
  • Trump's proposed budget includes a 20 percent cut to Labor Department funding, but not all areas as the Office of Labor-Management Standards, which investigates conducts witch hunts against in private-sector unions is set to receive a 22 percent increase.
  • Eliminating the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces rule, which barred companies from receiving federal contracts if they had a history of violating wage, labor or workplace safety laws. 
  • Rescinding the Persuader rule, which would have required law firms to publicly disclose any work they do for employers surrounding union busting and anti-union organization efforts.
  • Curtailing OSHA efforts to improve worker safety by delaying tightened exposure standards for silica, which is often breathed in by certain construction workers and linked to lung disease; and lower workplace exposure limits for beryllium, an industrial mineral linked to lung cancer.
And they are just getting started.  Traitor Trump and the Respublikanskaya Partiya have a message to 99% of Americans; You have No Friend in Government.  Welcome back to the Era of Forced Labor and Slavery.

Joe Biden was right as usual when, in 2012,  he stated, "We got a real clear picture of what they all value. Every Republican's voted for it.  They're going to put y'all back in chains."

4 comments:

Dervish Sanders said...

This is the flip side of paying lesser skilled workers low wages. Higher skilled laborers are exploited by making them salaried and then forcing them to put in excessive hours. According to the NBER article Why High Earners Work Longer Hours, working more hours might get you a raise or promotion. And, if you don't put in the excessive hours, your coworker will. And he/she will get that raise or promotion. At the very least (if you're content where you are/want to spend more time with your family), you'll be one of the first to be laid off (if the need arises). It's the carrot and stick approach to forcing salaried employees to gift free labor to their employers.

Not paying overtime is something Trump and low energy Jeb! agree on. Remember during the campaign when Jeb! said "people need to work longer hours and, through their productivity, gain more income for their families". Jeb! did not want to pay workers overtime for those longer hours, however. According to Jeb!, paying overtime would be the "wrong approach".

Despite being in agreement re overtime, Jeb was never in the running for Labor Secretary, however. Trump found someone worse. Although it is clear that all Republicans hate workers. Trump, who hired people to do work but then refused to pay while in the private sector, is no different in that regard. Despite his lies about bringing jobs back to America (guy who has his products manufactured overseas and hires non-Americans via the visa program. Or here illegally).

Dervish Sanders said...

This is the flip side of paying lesser skilled workers low wages. Higher skilled laborers are exploited by making them salaried and then forcing them to put in excessive hours. According to the NBER article Why High Earners Work Longer Hours, working more hours might get you a raise or promotion. And, if you don't put in the excessive hours, your coworker will. And he/she will get that raise or promotion. At the very least (if you're content where you are/want to spend more time with your family), you'll be one of the first to be laid off (if the need arises). It's the carrot and stick approach to forcing salaried employees to gift free labor to their employers.

Not paying overtime is something Trump and low energy Jeb! agree on. Remember during the campaign when Jeb! said "people need to work longer hours and, through their productivity, gain more income for their families". Jeb! did not want to pay workers overtime for those longer hours, however. According to Jeb!, paying overtime would be the "wrong approach".

Despite being in agreement re overtime, Jeb was never in the running for Labor Secretary, however. Trump found someone worse. Although it is clear that all Republicans hate workers. Trump, who hired people to do work but then refused to pay while in the private sector, is no different in that regard. Despite his lies about bringing jobs back to America (guy who has his products manufactured overseas and hires non-Americans via the visa program. Or here illegally).

Dervish Sanders said...

I commented. Now it's gone. Sent to spam?

Grung_e_Gene said...

Let me check!