Monthly Archives: March 2014

UFCW Local 400 member Rob Trotter (standing in back with blue shirt and glasses) stands by as President Obama orders an expansion so more salaried workers qualify for overtime pay.

President Obama ordered the Department of Labor to expand federal rules so that more salaried workers would be able to qualify for overtime pay. Currently, any salaried employee making more than $455 per week is not required to be given overtime pay when they work more than 40 hours in a week.

The current $455 per week salary threshold has failed to keep pace with inflation. It was $250 in 1975, equivalent to roughly $1,000 today. This expansion will give millions more workers across the nation the chance to earn extra pay when they do extra work.

UFCW Local 400 member Rob Trotter, a meat cutter at Giant in Annandale, Virginia, stood next to President Obama as he signed the memorandum.

“I have worked in retail for over 20years for an hourly wage,” he said. “I have depended upon overtime to pay school tuition for my children, or to get out from under a financial hardship. The opportunity to earn overtime has always been helpful and comforting to me.”

It is not yet clear by how much the salary threshold will increase. The President’s order instructs the Department of Labor to come up with an expansion plan following a period of input and study. With the stagnation of wages and the increase in corporate profits, actions like this give workers a better chance to provide for their families.

“There have been years when 20 percent of my income was comprised of overtime,” Trotter said. “Going above and beyond expectations at work takes a toll physically because you’re working harder and emotionally because you’re away from your family for a longer period of time. Every employer should fairly recognize and reward this sacrifice.”

A petition has been submitted to the Department of Labor on behalf of 2,000 workers formerly employed at the shuttered Plainview, Texas, Cargill meatpacking plant. The petition seeks assistance in the form of extended unemployment insurance, health care subsidies, job retraining, and other benefits for workers who were laid off on February 1, 2013 when the plant closed. The Trade Adjustment Assistant Program provides such assistance to mitigate the negative impacts on workers, farmers, businesses and communities due to increased imports under trade agreements.

UFCW Local 540 workers at the Plainview plant produced boxed beef; tissue pallets; offal; grease; hides; and rendering products such as tallow, bone meal, blood meal. An investigation showed that total U.S. beef imports of these products increased by $99.7 million dollars in 12 months preceding the closure – during which time a severe drought forced packers to import more beef to try to secure enough supply to keep their plants operating at full capacity.

At the time of the closure, UFCW Local 540 worked to minimize the economic disaster to workers brought on by the plant closure, ensuring that Cargill fulfilled financial obligations to workers under their union contract, and under the WARN Act. They also worked together with Cargill to give workers the opportunity to relocate to other Cargill plants, including in Friona, Texas, ensuring that people would not be brought on as “new hires” but would keep their benefits and eligibility for pensions.