Schwarzenegger backs off lunch-break proposal

[Judi Lynn]

Schwarzenegger backs off lunch-break proposal
State's labor interests declare victory, but governor likely to revise plan, try again
Mark Martin, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Sacramento -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday abandoned a controversial push to rewrite a law protecting the rights of workers to take lunch breaks.

After a yearlong battle with labor unions, the administration announced it was dropping efforts to enact new regulations governing meal periods. The rules -- which play a big role in the on-the-job lives of hourly workers in California -- would have been changed under Schwarzenegger's proposal to place the onus on the employee to ask for a 30-minute lunch break, instead of requiring employers to provide the break.

The governor's decision marks the second time in three months that he has bailed out of a fight with labor, although an administration spokesman said Schwarzenegger would probably revise the lunch regulations and propose them again in the future. The administration in November dropped a legal battle with the state's largest nurses union over a law requiring the number of nurses that hospitals must hire.

Labor groups who spent last fall battling the governor over his failed special election initiatives declared victory again.
(snip/...)

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/14/BAGBJGN6S91.DTL

[NanceGreggs]

1. Like all of this Idiot's ideas ...

This guy is permanently out-to-lunch.

[wordpix]

10. he's "out to lunch" hahaha. Wonder how much time HE takes on lunch break?

[acmavm]

11. Goes to show what a petty minded miserable cretin the guy is. Wants

to screw with people over taking nourishment to physically sustain themselves and enable them to get through the day.

Fine with me as long as he and the family have to do the same. Mandatory semi-starvation should not just be enforced on the 'people', Ah-nold should be the tough guy leader he plays in the movies and show everyone how it's done.

The guys an asswipe and I never ever ever figured out how/what made Californians put him in the governor's mansion.

[rodeodance]

16. he wanted employees to ask for lunch break!!--I shake my head.

[1monster]

20. Diebold, perhaps?

"The guys an asswipe and I never ever ever figured out how/what made Californians put him in the governor's mansion."

[MisterP]

34. he already bashes out lightbulbs and ignites laundry

"Laa Fameeleeyaa" wouldn't notice much

[napi21]

2. Boy, Californians are telling Arnie NO a lot these days, huh!

I betcha he's a nightmare to live with these days, not getting his own way and all. Poor wifey!

[aden_nak]

3. Permission to eat? Is he serious?

[Poll_Blind]

18. Yep, that's the enemy we're up against. Never forget it. n/t

PB

[Cha]

25. "Please Sir, can I have some more"..

:(Shades of little Oliver Twist in the days of Dickens. :(

[AlCzervik]

4. i don't think he's running again and i also think the Mrs. hit him over

the head and told him to knock off the bullshit.

[gulfcoastliberal]

5. Hope the caterers "forget" to serve him his meals

During whatever shitty movie he does next. What a nazi creep.

[LiberalFighter]

6. I hope that there are plenty of LTTE in cities all over the state...

with the details on Grope's attempts to screw the working people.

All media avenues need to be pursued to get as much coverage possible.

[Southsideirish]

7. What an embarrassment he is. How he EVER got elected in the first place

is astonishing to me.

[ananda]

8. Yeah, and..

.. how Reagan ever got elected is just as un fucking believable!

People literally lose their minds over celebrities and the powerful
wealthy.

Ughhh.

Sue

[Judi Lynn]

9. Not taking a decent break mid-day wears people down to a fine powder.

There's an important psychological need to simply walk away for a little while and regroup, to renew one's spirit, to lean back and simply breath, for chrissakes, before throwing yourself into the afternoon's work.

Anyone who tries to steal this moment of time for self, for restoration, is truly perverted, and no friend of his fellow people.

What a cheap, ugly man.

[mitchtv]

14. Maria Shriver is a classic example

of being denied lunch. Someone quick, get that girl a double cheeseburger!

[wordpix]

28. you're right, it looks like she NEVER gets a lunch break. Arnie must be

withholding food again

[realFedUp]

12. but what about cigar breaks?

maybe those workers just have to put a big
fat stogie to their lips to get a break....

[Cha]

26. swartzenwhatever is Wrong

on so many levels..and I just hope the media in California is not like the mediawhores in New York and D.C.

[anitar1]

38. Doesn't Arnie Have a tent for smoking?

I remember seeeing a pic of it after he was installed. He smokes big cigars and that is where he goes. Maybe the tent should be outlawed.

[Crunchy Frog]

13. I wonder what his next proposal is going to be.

Is he going to propose providing workers with on the job urinary catheters so that they won't have to take bathroom breaks?

[brentspeak]

15. What's next, permission to go to the bathroom?

[Occulus]

19. Already being done. Widely.

There are many employers who have a set amount of bathroom time an employee can use per shift.

[AnneD]

17. Let me tell you what will happen if it is not written in the law....

I work as a Nurse and in many states lunches is not written INTO the labour law. Now a lunch break seems like common sense-I mean it is usually non paid. A surprising number of states do not have that and as a result-in some professions (like Nursing), management makes no provision for coverage so that you can take an uninterrupted lunch. As a result all you get (if you can) is what is mandated by Federal Law-that little 2 15 min breaks. This, if you dare to take it, can be all you get in a 12 hr shift. Talk about dangerous to Nurses and patients. And if you rock the boat-watchout. The Ca. Nurses association has been successful in taking to caourt AND winning cases in Ca. because it is written in the law. They were able to win hundreds of thousands of $$$ in unpaid OT. I wouldn't be surprised if some Healthcare Co whispered this in his ear.

[VegasWolf]

21. Gee California, I wonder what would happen if you elect a muscle bound

actor on steroids with no intellect to be your governor? California is no longer the place where I lived for so long.

[zanne]

23. Exactly.

I'm tired of thinking of Americans as victims. The people of California got what they voted for.

[AnneD]

24. I don't know...

of too many Nurses that voted for him. Gray Davis did much to raise the patient safety levels in Ca. He actually listened to the Nurses on that on.

[gardenista]

29. California would never have elected him in a regular election

The only way he got in was because of the recall, and the way the votes were apportioned due to the special election.

You should give credit to Californians who roundly defeated every one of his ballot measures in the recent special election.

If California is no longer the place where you lived, it's because you're not here.

I'm proud to be a Californian, and we will defeat that bloated bag in the next election.

[Maat]

32. I second that, mgdecombe!

Besides, this Californian believes Diebold helped him get in.

[VegasWolf]

35. Sure,

"If California is no longer the place where you lived, it's because you're not here."

There's a brilliant bit of impervious logic on display. Proud of your discourse ability are you?

Aside from your childish statement, Arnie would not have made it during a regular election simply because Arnie was not an extreme enough conservative. The special election gave Arnie the chance he would never have had. And guess what, California elected him. None of your posturing can change that simple fact. We'll wait with bated breath to see if your prognosis about the future is correct. Thank god I'm not stuck in that tax hell hole any longer. Nice to have the extra 50 grand a year without state income taxes.

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

[gardenista]

37. ?

Sorry to have misread you.

Is it the Reagan days you pine for?

Glad you're enjoying all your money.

[baby_bear]

22. What's next? Child labor?

Unless the child specifically protests, the employer's off the hook?

These ask-to-eat and ask-to-pee rules pit employee against employee in terms
of pleasing management.

The whole concept is so transparently anti-worker - how did Arnold ever think
he could pull it off?

The insensitivity, the inhumanity - it boggles the mind.

b_b

[symbolman]

27. In my opinion that's right up there and the equivalent

of TORTURE..

Let's get real folks, denying people food during 8 hours of labor is basically TORTURING THEM..

They want to talk about heroes, how about Woody Guthrie and Pete Seegar riding around on the back of pickup trucks singing songs about unionizing in the old days, when goons were sent to kill them, beat them all with baseball bats, shoot them, run them over with horses..

THESE are Heroes, and they fought for decent living wages, breakes, vacations, no child labor..

Schwarzengroper is no kind of hero, no matter what he does on celluloid.. and I'm frankly beginning to think he'd insane.. I wonder if there's a provision that can be used like in the Caine Mutiny where the Commander (Govenor) can be removed from office if he appears to have mental problems.. I think the steroids fried his brain..

Was watching a tv local new report in Hawaii last night and they were talking about the Ice Problem in the Islands - so they tested a lot of people and found that ice wasn't such a bad problem (it IS), but that 2% of the WORKFORCE were testing positive for pot..

Notice the framing? WORKFORCE.. like we are OWNED, everything that affects the BOSS's profits is BAD..

Wake up America, our country is OCCUPIED, we are under OCCUPATION BY CORPORATIONS, and this is just another shot across the bow of Corporate SLAVERY.. we must fight and throw these shackles OFF.

[brer cat]

30. The irony that this is news on the eve of MLK holiday!

Dr. King worked so hard for worker's rights, whether black or white, yet still we are fighting for a meal break, and minimum wage is $5.15. He would weep; we all should weep at what our society has become. My sister is a registered nurse working 12 hour shifts in an emergency room. She is "docked" 30 min each shift for 2 15 min breaks whether she takes them or not, and usually she can't because it's a small rural hospital where no one can cover for her. One example of thousands of the corporate culture of greed greatly expanded by the * administration.

[pinniped]

31. Herr Gropenator wants people to outstretch their right arms...

when asking for a lunch break.

[fishwax]

33. screw you, ahnold

sheesh. I mean, who needs lunch breaks? :grr:

[f-bush]

36. Arnold's a pig plain and simple

I used to think he was just an asshole towrds women, but I was wrong, he's an asshole towards everybody. I can't stand that smug, arrogant, former nazi piece of shit, who should actually be in jail instead of the governor's mansion.