Overtime for Workers

* Re “Bill Would Right Wrong of Daily Overtime Pay Cut,” Jan. 17.

Two things bother me about Assemblyman Wally Knox’s plea for the restoration of daily overtime pay after eight hours, however well-intentioned this may be.

One is the notion that no one should ever have to work over eight hours. In the period from 1870 to 1920, 12- to 16-hour days were commonplace. Labor fought for the 8-hour day (“8 hours for work, 8 hours for sleep, 8 hours for what we will” went the song of the period). Yet the film industry has a 14-hour day, medical trainees put in 36-hour hospital shifts and mid-managers and office workers routinely work 10 to 12 hours. We complain about shoe factories in Indonesia but overlook the same working conditions in this country.

Second, like so many of our leaders (Oakland Mayor and former Gov. Jerry Brown, county Supervisor Mike Antonovich and a number of state assembly members) Knox started his political career as a trustee with the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD). Hundreds of LACCD faculty work overtime teaching evening courses but are paid an hourly rate less than half their regular day rate. Even worse, close to 2,000 faculty teach only part-time at that same 40% hourly rate.

I never heard Knox (or any other trustee) show concern for those faculty. The job of a trustee is to save money for the district.

America is a rich country. All of its people should be able to live comfortably on an 8-hour wage.

RICK ROFMAN

Van Nuys