Marcia Fudge on Jobs

Collective bargaining rights a top priority

Voted NO on allowing compensatory time off for working overtime.

• Amends the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to authorize private employers to provide compensatory time off to private employees at a rate of 1 1/2 hours per hour of employment for which overtime compensation is required.
• Authorizes an employer to provide compensatory time only if it is in accordance with an applicable collective bargaining agreement.
• Prohibits an employee from accruing more than 160 hours of compensatory time.
• Requires an employee's employer to provide monetary compensation for any unused compensatory time off accrued during the preceding year.
• Requires an employer to give employees 30-day notice before discontinuing compensatory time off.

Opponent's Argument for voting No:

Rep. COURTNEY: This is the fifth time that the majority party has introduced [this bill since] 1997; and each time, the huge flaws in this legislation have resulted in its complete collapse. And once again, it doesn't deserve that support. Despite the representations made in its title--that it promotes workers' flexibility, that it gives workers choice--a closer examination of the bill shows the opposite is true. The better way to describe this bill is the More Work, Pay Less bill.

The 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act created a bright line to protect people's right to a 40-hour work week, and make sure that that next hour after 40 hours is paid for with the time-and-a-half of wages. That created the weekend in America. That created the time off that middle class families have taken for granted for decades.

What this bill does is it blurs that line; it creates total chaos in terms of trying to come up with a system to set up ground rules with a case-by-case written contract, and then leaves it to the enforcement of State Labor Departments Wage and Hours Divisions, which are totally incapable of going into the tens of thousands of workplaces all across America.

Form unions by card-check instead of secret ballot.

Amends the National Labor Relations Act to require the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to certify a bargaining representative without directing an election if a majority of the bargaining unit employees have authorized designation of the representative (card-check) and there is no other individual or labor organization currently certified or recognized as the exclusive representative of any of the employees in the unit.

Requires that priority be given to any charge that, while employees were seeking representation by a labor organization, an employer:
1. discharged or otherwise discriminated against an employee to encourage or discourage membership in the labor organization;
2. threatened to discharge or to otherwise discriminate against an employee in order to interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the exercise of guaranteed self-organization or collective bardaining rights; or
3. engaged in any unfair labor practice that significantly interferes with, restrains, or coerces employees in the exercise of such guaranteed rights. Source: Employee Free Choice Act 09-HR1409 on Mar 10, 2009

   Member of House Committee on Agriculture.

   Fudge is a member of the House Committee on Agriculture

   The House Committee on Agriculture has general jurisdiction over federal agriculture policy and oversight of some federal agencies, and it can recommend funding appropriations for various governmental agencies, programs, and activities, as defined by House rules. The Committee was established in 1820; in 1880 forestry was added to its jurisdiction. Its jurisdiction now includes:

   1. Adulteration of seeds, insect pests, and protection of birds and animals in forest reserves.
   2. Agriculture generally.
   3. Agricultural and industrial chemistry.
   4. Agricultural colleges and experiment stations.
   5. Agricultural economics and research.
   6. Agricultural education extension services.
   7. Agricultural production and marketing and stabilization of prices of agricultural products, and commodities (not including distribution outside of the United States).
   8. Animal industry and diseases of animals.
   9. Commodity exchanges.
   10. Crop insurance and soil conservation.
   11. Dairy industry.
   12. Entomology and plant quarantine.
   13. Extension of farm credit and farm security.
   14. Inspection of livestock, poultry, meat products, and seafood and seafood products.
   15. Forestry in general, and forest reserves other than those created from the public domain.
   16. Human nutrition and home economics.
   17. Plant industry, soils, and agricultural engineering.
   18. Rural electrification.
   19. Rural development.
   20. Water conservation related to activities of the Department of Agriculture.
   Source: U.S. House of Representatives website, www.house.gov 11-HC-Ag on Feb 3, 2011

   Rated 0% by CEI, indicating a pro-worker rights voting record.

   Fudge scores 0% by CEI on union issues

   The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a public policy organization dedicated to the principles of free markets and limited government, has created a Congressional Labor Scorecard for the 112th Congress focusing on worker issues. The score is determined based on policies that support worker freedom and the elimination of Big Labor's privileges across the country.

   Votes in the current Congress score include:
   • Bill: H.R. 658, LaTourette Amendment No. 21: NO on repealing changes to the Railway Labor Act's voting rules.
   • Bill: H.R. 658, Gingrey Amendment No. 18: YES to prohibit Federal Aviation Administration employees from using official--that is, taxpayer sponsored--time for union activities during the official workday.
   • Bill: H.R. 1, Price Amendment No. 410: YES to defund the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
   • Bill: H.R. 1, Guinta Amendment No. 166: YES to prohibit imposing "prevailing wage" and other requirements in project labor agreements that advantage unionized contractors.
   • Bill: H.R. 2017, Scalise Amendment No. 388: YES to prohibit project labor agreements in DHS contracts
   • Bill: H.R. 2055, LaTourette Amendment No. 411: NO on funding for federal project labor agreements.
   • Bill: H.R. 1, King Amendment No. 273: YES to eliminate the "Davis Bacon" prevailing wage rate requirement for federal projects.
   • Bill: H.R. 2017, Gosar Amendment No. 386: YES to eliminate the "Davis Bacon" prevailing wage rate requirement for Department of Homeland Security contracts.
   • Bill: H.R. 2354: Gosar Amendment No. 655: YES to restrict application of the Davis-Bacon Act to contracts exceeding $20 million.
   • Bill: H.R. 2017: Rokita Amendment No. 2: YES to prohibit collective bargaining at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
   Source: CEI website 12-CEI-H on May 2, 2012

   Raise the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour by 2016.

   Fudge co-sponsored Minimum Wage Fairness Act

   Congressional summary: Increases the federal minimum wage for employees to:

   1. $8.20 an hour beginning 6 months after enactment
   2. $9.15 an hour beginning 1 year later,
   3. $10.10 an hour beginning 2 years later, and
   4. an amount determined by increases in the Consumer Price Index, beginning annually after 3 years.
   • Increases the federal minimum wage for tipped employees to $3.00 an hour beginning 6 months after enactment, with annual CPI adjustments.

   Proponent's argument in favor (RaiseTheMinimumWage.com): The federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour remains decades out of date, and the federal minimum wage for tipped workers--$2.13 per hour--has not increased in over 20 years. The minimum wage of the past provided significantly more buying power than it does today. The minimum wage of $1.60 an hour in 1968 would be $10.56 today when adjusted for inflation.

   Opponent's argument against: (Neil King in Wall Street Journal, Feb. 24, 2014): The CBO concluded that a jump in the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour could eliminate 500,000 jobs. For Republicans, the report provided ammunition that a higher minimum wage would kill jobs. Democrats pointed to the CBO's findings that the higher wage would lift 900,000 people out of poverty. But both sides missed a key finding: That a smaller hike from the current $7.25 to $9.00 an hour would cause almost no pain, and still lift 300,000 people out of poverty while raising the incomes of 7.6 million people.Congressional Budget Office report:: Once fully implemented, the $10.10 option would reduce total employment by about 500,000 workers, or 0.3%. Some people earning slightly more than $10.10 would also have higher earnings, due to the heightened demand for goods and services. The increased earnings for low-wage workers would total $31 billion. Accounting for all increases and decreases, overall real income would rise by $2 billion.

   Source: S.1737 & H.R.1010 14-H1010 on Mar 6, 2013

   Raise minimum wage to 15% above poverty level.

   Fudge co-sponsored H.R.122

   Congressional Summary:

   1. The federal minimum wage should be adjusted every four years so that a person working for it may earn, as a minimum, an annual income at least 15% higher than the federal poverty threshold for a family of four;
   2. it should be set at a level high enough to allow two full-time minimum wage workers to earn an income above the national housing wage; and
   3. Congress, or any local or state government, may establish a higher minimum wage.

   Opponents reasons for voting NAY: (Time magazine, 9/5/13): The Washington DC council sent a bill to the mayor's desk that would require large retailers like Walmart and Target to pay its workers a "living wage" of $12.50 per hour--significantly higher than the District's $8.25 per hour minimum wage. Here are common misunderstandings about the DC bill and minimum wage laws in general:

   • Myth 1: "Living Wage Bills help all workers." The DC law exempts retailers with stores smaller than 75,000 square feet and less than $1 billion in sales, so it doesn't help many workers in small and medium sized businesses. The size requirement has the effect of protecting giant retailers that happen to do business in relatively small stores like Nike and Apple.
   • Myth 2: "High minimum wages reduce employment." Standard economic theory says that if you raise the minimum wage, businesses will hire fewer workers. But over the past decade, San Francisco has instituted a minimum-wage requirement that rises with inflation, currently $10.55. These laws have not reduced employment; instead, businesses seem to have merely adjusted their models by training workers and retaining them longer.
   • Myth 3: "Inflation has shrunk the minimum wage." Advocates point out the minimum wage, when adjusted for inflation, has actually fallen to $7.25 today from the equivalent (in today's dollars) of $10.70 in 1968. But the earned income tax credit has more than made up for that decline. Source: Original Living Wage Act 15_H122 on Jan 6, 2015

     Ban discriminatory compensation; allow 2 years to sue.

     Fudge signed Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
     Amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to declare that an unlawful employment practice occurs when:
     1. a discriminatory compensation decision or other practice is adopted;
     2. an individual becomes subject to the decision or practice; or
     3. an individual is affected by application of the decision or practice, including each time wages, benefits, or other compensation is paid.
     Allows an aggrieved person to obtain relief, including recovery of back pay, for up to two years preceding the filing of the charge, where the unlawful employment practices that have occurred during the charge filing period are similar or related to practices that occurred outside the time for filing a charge. Applies the preceding provisions to claims of compensation discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

     [Note: A woman named Lilly Ledbetter filed a lawsuit for gender-based discriminatory compensation. The Supreme Court ruled that Ms. Ledbetter could only sue for damages going back 180 days, and the 180 days was calculated from the time her employment contract was initiated, i.e., her hire date. This new law changes the 180-day period to two years, and also calculates the date from the time of each paycheck, rather than the hire date. -- Ed.]

     Source: S.181&H.R.11 2009-S181 on Jan 29, 2009

     Stronger enforcement against gender-based pay discrimination.

     Fudge signed Paycheck Fairness Act
     A bill to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to provide more effective remedies to victims of discrimination in the payment of wages on the basis of sex.
     • Revises the exception to the prohibition for a wage rate differential based on any other factor other than sex. Limits such factors to bona fide factors, such as education, training, or experience.
     • Prohibits employer retaliation for inquiring about, discussing, or disclosing the wages of the employee in response to a sex discrimination investigation.
     • Makes employers who violate sex discrimination prohibitions liable in a civil action for either compensatory or punitive damages.
     • States that any action brought to enforce the prohibition against sex discrimination may be maintained as a class action in which individuals may be joined as party plaintiffs without their written consent.
     Source: S.182&H.R.12 2009-S182 on Jan 8, 2009

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