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| President's
Perspective May 19, 2004 Nurses stand up for patient safety
Maybe that doesn't seem so remarkable to you. Unions are always fighting for something down at the Capitol. But this was the first time that NYSUT, 1199 Service Employees International Union and the New York State Public Employees Federation, the three major health care unions in New York state, all came together to make a little noise for the governor and the Legislature. The issue is a serious one: The nursing profession is under siege, with tens of thousands of registered nurses in New York not working as nurses because of low pay and poor working conditions. The nurses who are working are forced to deal with understaffing and mandatory overtime shifts that leave them exhausted and ineffective. As Anne Goldman, the chairwoman of the NYSUT Health Care Professionals Council, said: "New Yorkers have to ask themselves what kind of health care system they want. The choice is clear: Either we staff hospitals the right way and end mandatory overtime, or we put every patient's health and safety at risk. It's that simple." It was a great sight: More than 500 health care professionals standing up for their patients and their professions. The politicians came, saw and promised, and hopefully there will be progress this year. It all reminded me of just how important unions are as agents of change. Those hundreds of union nurses were backed by more than 800,000 fellow union members, including more than half a million NYSUT members. I doubt the politicians would have listened so closely if those had been non-union nurses marching around the Capitol steps. Safeguarding workers' right to overtime Working men and women won a major victory last week when the Senate passed an amendment that would protect workers who stand to lose their overtime pay under new rules issued by the Bush administration. The amendment offered by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, was approved in a 52-47 bipartisan vote. Unfortunately, House Republicans refused to allow a debate or vote on the amendment, and tabled it. Only two Republicans voted against tabling in the 222-205 vote. Unless Congress acts or President Bush backs down, the regulations will go into effect Aug. 23. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-New York, strongly supported the amendment on the Senate floor. Below is Sen. Clinton's statement from the Congressional Record on this important piece of legislation: I rise today in strong support of the Harkin amendment because I believe it is the right thing to do for New York 's working families. The Harkin amendment is very simple. It says that not a single worker who is currently eligible for overtime pay should be denied that right. And I have yet to hear a compelling reason that some workers currently eligible for overtime should lose that eligibility. In fact, the Department of Labor argues emphatically that few if any workers will actually lose eligibility. Well, if few (if any) workers will lose overtime eligibility, then I see no reason why the Department of Labor shouldn't support the Harkin amendment wholeheartedly. Of course, the reality, as those at the Department of Labor well know, is that plenty of workers will lose eligibility for overtime. Let's look at the facts. Registered nurses will be in danger of losing their eligibility because, for the first time, it will be easier to classify those who are paid hourly as "salaried employees." It will also be easier to classify them as "team leaders." Journalists will lose their automatic overtime protection. Veterans who do not have a four-year degree will be much more easily classified as professional employees and denied overtime eligibility. Workers in the financial services industry — and I represent many of them — will lose their overtime protection if they do not exercise independent judgment and discretion. Chefs. Funeral dir-ectors. Embalmers. Insurance claims adjusters. Salespeople. Software engineers. Computer programmers. All will be vulnerable to the loss of overtime — and therefore face significant pay cuts. The list goes on and on and on. And these are just the consequences analysts can foresee. What does the loss of overtime mean? Let's put it in human terms. It's a 25 percent pay cut. It's $161 a week on average. And — as importantly — it's time with your family. This is not trivial. At its very core, this issue is about our American values of work and family. Workers stripped of their overtime protection would end up working longer hours for less pay. That translates into less time with their children, less time with their parents, their spouses, less time to volunteer and contribute to the fabric of our community. More work hours, for less pay, and less family time — that is not the American way. This regulation would make unpaid overtime a household word and make it easier for bad-faith employers to coerce other workers into accepting time off instead of overtime pay. Now, I know there is strong support in this chamber to protect the rights of workers to receive overtime because we've done it before. Back in September, we passed a very similar amendment to prevent the Depart-ment of Labor from promulgating any amendment that denied overtime from any worker currently eligible. Republicans in my state crossed party lines to block this regulation in the House — and I applaud them for doing so. They know how many New Yorkers rely on overtime pay — not as a luxury, as a necessity. Back then, despite strong bipartisan votes in the House and Senate, the extremist right wing leaders in the House and Senate neglected to include the language in the final appropriations bill. They made a mockery of the democratic process. But with this vote today we prove that we will keep fighting for the rights of working people. We may be overruled — as we were before — but we will not back down. I urge my colleagues to support the Harkin amendment and to reject the Bush administration economic policy of tax cuts for the wealthy and pay cuts for the workers. |
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A remarkable thing happened earlier this month in Albany: Three unions representing nurses and health care workers came together in a rally for safer staffing at New York 's hospitals.