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Health & Fitness

80 is the new 40!

Guess who wants to end overtime pay for more than 40 hours worked? His name rhymes with Y'all Lyin'!

With a welcoming name like "Working Families Flexibility Act" who wouldn't vote for bill HR 1406 in the Republican-controlled house? With a name like that I bet it protects hard-working men and women throughout our great country from having their jobs swept out from underneath their steel-toed boots and being offered to five year olds in overseas sweatshops, or maybe it guarantees health insurance if a worker averages 40 hours per week, or maybe it guarantees a woman's right to retain her benefits if she takes extended maternity leave . . . or maybe we should wake up and smell the bitter-tasting tea that the Tea Party wing of the GOP is trying to forcibly pour down the throats of working class America:

What "Working Families Flexibility Act" actually does is give EMPLOYERS (not employees) more flexibility on how to get more work out of us for less pay. It gives corporations the flexibility to have us work up to 160 hours of overtime, without time and a half, but instead allow the company to "pay" us with time off.

The "Working Families Flexibility Act" also allows you as a worker to accrue up to 160 hours of unpaid overtime and not get reimbursed if your employer goes out of business or declares bankruptcy. 

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What "Working Families Flexibility Act" DOES NOT do is allow workers to choose the time they would like to exchange their worked overtime for off-time. 

The bill also DOES NOT provide protection for employees who may not want to receive compensatory time off in lieu of overtime pay.

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The "Working Families Flexibility Act" allows employers to refuse to allow an employee to take time off to deal with a family member or attend a parent-teacher conference.

The "Working Families Flexibility Act" frickin' sucks!

But don't take my word for it: 

The nonpartisan National Partnership for Women and Families finds that “The mis-named Working Families Flexibility Act will mean a pay cut for workers without any guaranteed flexibility or time off” and that the proposal “erodes the basic guarantees of the Fair Labor Standards Act: fair pay for overtime work and time off from work.”

A senior economist for the Center for Economic and Policy Research writes, “Its major effect would be to hamstring workers — likely increasing overtime hours for those who don’t want them and cutting pay for those who do.”

So who in their right mind would vote for this affront on hard-working Americans just as we are starting to fight our way out of a recession? 

Our very own Paul Ryan, who has never worked a private sector job in his entire life (one summer as an intern in the family business doesn't count Paul) - that's who!

That's right, Paul Ryan voted "Yes" for this crap-hole, kick in the balls, punch to the ribs, spit in the face, poke in the eyes, hot poker in the rear of the working class people bill that the GOP incorrectly named, "Working Families Flexibility Act." 

Let's be honest, they should have called it, "Wrecking The Families Fortuitously Act."

Hey kids, if Paul Ryan and his rich company-owning buddies get their way, I can work overtime for a month and not get paid! Hurray! Then we can go to church and hope and pray that my company doesn't go under and take my overtime pay with them to Switzerland or that bank in Mexico where Mitt Romney keeps his money. And then at the end of the year if my company still exists, we can pray that they don't give me compensatory time off in January instead of the Summer when the kids are off. It's a little hard to go camping at Yogi Bear in the Wisconsin Dells when the pool (and my nose hairs) are frozen solid.

Paul Ryan, I am embarrassed that you are my representative in the house. The only "house" you belong in is that old abandoned, crap-filled dog house in the far corner of my uncle's yard that the wild skunks use to make baby skunks in - And this bill smells like it's already been there - for a while.

Rob Zerban, Paul Ryan's Democratic opponent said in response,  "If you are looking for the precise year Republicans are trying to roll back the clock, it's 1886." Zerban is referring to the Bay View massacre, where seven people were shot and killed under the orders of the Republican Governor of WI as they were striking for an eight hour work day and overtime pay. Does anybody know if Paul Ryan has a concealed carry license? If so, you better not ask for overtime in front of that bad boy...

http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2013/05/gop-figures-out-new-way-to-screw.

http://tndp.org/blog/2013/05/09/u-s-house-republican-majority-votes-to-axe-40-hour-work-week/

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