It should be straightforward: if you’re paid hourly and work more than 40 hours a week, you get overtime pay—right?

But some Members of Congress want to allow bosses to steal overtime pay from working women and their families—all under the false pretense of “flexibility.” Let them know you aren’t fooled.

Tell Congress Not to Steal Overtime Pay from Working People

Demand that your Representative reject the misleadingly named “Working Families Flexibility Act.”

TAKE ACTION NOW

Overtime protections allow working people to boost their paychecks while encouraging bosses not to overwork their employees. The so-called “Working Families Flexibility Act” (H.R. 1180) would allow bosses to deny employees overtime pay with the promise of “comp time”—paid time off in the future—instead. But the catch is that employers don’t have to offer any guarantees that employees can use the time off to care for their families or themselves when they need it. Although the politicians behind this bill say it will help working people, we see it for what it really is: a way for bosses to squeeze more hours out of their employees without paying them fairly.

Help us stop this bill in its tracks: tell your Representative to oppose H.R. 1180.

We’ll never stop fighting for policies that promote fair pay and help women balance the demands of work and family—including overtime protections, paid sick days, paid family and medical leave, fair work schedules, strong equal pay laws, and an increased minimum wage. Thank you for fighting with us.

Sincerely,
Emily Martin
General Counsel and Vice President for Workplace Justice
National Women’s Law Center

We the Resistance is our fight to protect our rights and freedoms and to defend the most vulnerable among us through powerful collective action. Every conversation you have with a loved one about the issues important to you, every call you make to Congress, every rally you attend is a part of that resistance. Join us — sign on to the We The Resistance manifesto.

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The Patriots

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AGITATOR …

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A De Facto Death Sentence for a Father of Four

04/21/2017 Nativegrl77

Robert Greenwald, Brave New Films

This is the story of Clarence Allen Rice, as told to Brave New Films by his daughter, Allison, and it is a heartbreaking example of a system that doesn’t work.

Rice was a 64-year-old, church-going, Iowan father of four who owned a leasing business, got into financial trouble and broke the law trying to get out of it. He had no prior record and was a danger to no one, ever. Shortly into a six-year-sentence he was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

He asked for compassionate release, that is, the opportunity to get out of prison before his sentence was fully completed so he could die at home among friends and family. Congress has put into law a system for inmates to petition a judge to reduce their sentence – for compassionate release – if the meet certain criteria including having only a short time left to live.

Despite meeting the criteria for compassionate release, the bureaucrats at the prisons department refused to allow him to petition the judge to go home and die in peace. They made the decision themselves, and he died behind bars.

This is not how it’s supposed to work, legally, or morally. The Federal Sentencing Commission has made this clear: If criteria are met, a judge weighs in, period. After all, the sentencing judge is in possession of all the facts and in the best position to make a decision. Yet in this case, and in others, prison officials are making the call.

Congress should act to prevent this. The rules are clear and no one should be able to get around them. There are so many ways lately that we are being forced to question what kind of country we truly want to be. Here is one, small way, we can answer.

Robert Greenwald, President
Brave New Films