|
Under the Sun Cynthia Oi |
New rules about overtime
and how to end-run themWE were called pineapple packers because that's what we did. We stood along counters, grabbed fruit that had been skinned, its prickly crown lopped off, and flipped away below-grade slices before sliding the yellow-gold cylinder into tin.
Trimmers, whose jobs were to cut away stuff the skinning machines missed, got to sit while they worked, but packers stood -- feet planted wide on wooden planks to keep steady in a slick of juice -- through an entire shift, which in peak harvest season ran 12 hours.
Workers on the long shift got two 15-minute rest periods, just enough time to make it to the restroom and back. The 30-minute lunch break didn't provide much respite. After peeling off gloves and aprons and washing up, you had about 10 minutes to eat before having to rig up and get back to your table. If you weren't back at the whistle, the forewoman piled up your assigned number of pineapples at your station to pack between the others that glided ceaselessly down the conveyer belt.
Unscheduled breaks came when blood appeared inside your glove or on your arms. Then you'd go to the dispensary, where nurses would scrub the pineapple acid from your skin, slather afflicted areas with ointment, wrap them in gauze and send you back to the tables.
I hated that job.
The only reason to work the cannery in the summers was for the money. If you were willing to bear the noise and smell, to tough out the verbal abuse of supervisors and the physical abuse of flesh-eating acid, you pulled down far more than with any other summer job.
It paid minimum wage, but even when the practice in those days was to extend the work week beyond the usual 40 hours, you still made the bucks enduring the 60-hour week. If you put in an extra day for a six-day week, you made enough to pay for tuition, books and other college expenses.
I loved the overtime.
It wasn't easy, but the teenage body can withstand a bit of exploitation. And I didn't have to care for children or take on other responsibilities of working adults. People who juggle jobs and family are hard-pressed for time these days as hours are extended by employers' demands. But at least we got the extra money.
Now, however, the Bush administration wants to nip that off. The Labor Department is set to change rules about overtime pay in response to employers' complaints about lawsuits by workers who say they are unfairly denied overtime.
The new corporate-friendly rules would eliminate overtime for as many as 8 million workers, but the Bush people contend that about 1.3 million low-wage earners would become eligible. Right now, people who make less than $8,060 a year are supposed to get overtime. The new rules would raise that baseline to $22,100.
Sounds good, but along with a summary of its rules, the Labor Department reveals its true intentions by giving pointers on how businesses can still dodge the overtime bullet, such as cutting salaries so that if employees work overtime they won't actually make any more money.
Worker productivity and consumer spending have contributed greatly to recent economic gains, but the recovery has not produced jobs. A steadying unemployment rate does not reflect the millions who've dropped off jobless rolls not because they've found work, but because they no longer qualify for unemployment insurance.
Meanwhile, those who are employed put in longer hours, setting aside families and personal time off, many in fear of losing their jobs in a market flooded with others eager to take their places. How sensible are policies that squeeze out discretionary spending, that force people to put in long hours that unbalance home life without compensation?
The department claims its mission is to foster the welfare of wage earners while helping employers. Seems like it is doing only the latter.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Cynthia Oi has been on the staff of the Star-Bulletin since 1976. She can be reached at: coi@starbulletin.com.