01 Jul 1997 Administration Declines to Investigate When Major Union Exploits Workers

Posted at 22:52h in Articles by

For two years, Rep. Cass Ballenger (R-NC), chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Subcommittee, has called on the Department of Labor to investigation possible violations of the minimum wage law by… the AFL-CIO.

According to press accounts, the AFL-CIO’s leadership hired 1,000 college students for their “Union Summer” internship program, making many of them work an average of 76 hours per week — which, if calculated on an hourly basis, means an hourly pay rate of $2.76. This constitutes, according to the subcommittee, an apparent violation of both minimum wage and overtime laws — which the AFL-CIO lobbied for ardently.

Has the Clinton Administration investigated the AFL-CIO? Maybe. But it’s unlikely: whenever Chairman Ballenger asks them for information about their inquiry, he receives no reply.

Has the administration failed to investigate because the AFL-CIO helps Democratic candidates, or because it simply doesn’t care? Neither answer speaks well for them.



The National Center for Public Policy Research is a communications and research foundation supportive of a strong national defense and dedicated to providing free market solutions to today’s public policy problems. We believe that the principles of a free market, individual liberty and personal responsibility provide the greatest hope for meeting the challenges facing America in the 21st century.