ALEC- Screwing You - 1 Paycheck at a Time

ALEC and ALEC Corporations make me so damn mad some days I CRY - because of the damage that ALEC, ALEC legislators, and their ALEC corporations are doing to the American people.

Today I cried.

I HATE ALEC and everything it stands for.

In March I introduced my readers to the ALEC Electronic Pay Choice Act.
I can't even begin to imagine how many decades ALEC and their Corporate buddies have been sitting around talking about this piece of malicious legislation.

A piece of pro-corporate ALEC legislation that takes money out of the pockets of

Americans and puts it into the pockets of the corporations - for no other reason than - 

becausetheycan and becausetheywantitall.

Another piece of pro-corporate ALEC legislation that takes away the rights of citizens to bank as they choose.

As I noted in that blog entry:

    I bet executives wouldn't put up with this kind of payroll crap 

       from their employer - I'd like to see

       them get their paycheck on a debit card

    I bet a legislator wouldn't put up this kind of payroll crap 

       from the state government- I'd like to see

       them get their paycheck on a debit card 

 And here's the recap of part of that entry.

The ALEC Electronic Pay Choice Act

Starts out by saying that an employer may pay employees in

    lawful money of the United States

    by a check payable in lawful money of the United States

    by automated transfer in lawful money of the United States

    or by credit to a prepaid debit or credit card.

READ THIS VERY CAREFULLY!!

However, an employer that elects not to pay wages or salaries in accordance with clause (i) or (ii)

(Meaning hard cash or hard check)

shall be permitted to pay wages or salaries by credit to a prepaid debit card or card account in accordance with clause (iv),

(Meaning direct deposit to a debit card)

even though such employee has not affirmatively consented thereto,

(say what??????????? - you get no say - the employer can do anything they damn well want to do with your paycheck)

if the employee fails to designate an account at a financial institution in accordance with clause (iii)

(which means the employee does not give the employer a routing number for direct deposit)

and the employer arranges for such card or card account to be issued through a network system

(presumably using an ALEC corporate sector member)

 Shortly after I wrote that entry the state of Connecticut tried to enact this vile piece of ALEC legislation.

A piece of legislation that was pushed by VISA in the state of Connecticut - which would have taken away the right of citizens to receive their paycheck through direct deposit, a hard copy check or cash.

Visa, "Chairman" level sponsor of 2011 ALEC Annual Conference[17] ($50,000 in 2010)[18] and sponsor of the August 5th, 2011, Plenary Session speech of FreedomWorks' Dick Armey.[12] Also member of ALEC's Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development Task Force[42]

I'm sure people who read my entry at the time thought that this was an over-reach on what ALEC truly was trying to achieve.  Those readers don't understand the true maliciousness of ALEC and ALEC legislators.

Just this week an diary showed up on Daily Kos - which started out

Or another reason not to eat at Mc Donald's.

Now that Chase and BofA have the SNAP market cornered they have decided to move up the social rung to the low paid wage earners.

Mc Donald's employees have only the option of using a debit card attached to Chase Bank that takes fees from their paycheck to use the money.

 The author of the diary did not know that this practice was inspired by ALEC.

Today in the New York Times:

 As Pay Cards Replace Paychecks, Bank Fees Hurt Workers

By JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG and STEPHANIE CLIFFORD

Published: June 30, 2013

A growing number of American workers are confronting a frustrating predicament on payday: to get their wages, they must first pay a fee.

For these largely hourly workers, paper paychecks and even direct deposit have been replaced by prepaid cards issued by their employers. Employees can use these cards, which work like debit cards, at an A.T.M. to withdraw their pay.

But in the overwhelming majority of cases, using the card involves a fee.

The companies noted in the article that are forcing their employees to take their pay on a debit card include:

McDonalds

Taco Bell,

Walgreen 

Walmart 

Home Depot

Payroll Debit Card Issuers include

Bank of America,

Wells Fargo

Citigroup, 

Visa’s Web  

ALL ALEC(currently or in the past)

You may ask yourself - well, if companies are already forcing their employees to use payroll debit cards why would ALEC legislation be important.

Well - because of the potential for this:

Another McDonald’s worker, Natalie Gunshannon, 27, says the owners of the franchise that she worked for in Dallas, Pa., refused to deposit her pay directly into her checking account at a local credit union, which lets its customers use its A.T.M.’s free. Instead, Ms. Gunshannon said, she was forced to use a payroll card issued by JPMorgan Chase. She has since quit her job at the drive-through window and is suing the franchise owners.

“I know I deserve to get fairly paid for my work,” she said.

God forbid that an employee (or a consumer) would have recourse against an employer (or corporation) - that is the main purpose of every piece of legislation produced by the American Legislative Exchange Council - to take away every damn one of YOUR rights.

Legislation produced by the American Legislative Exchange Council to ensure the profits of their corporate members.

Some employees can also be hit with $25 overdraft fees, called “balance protection,” on some of the prepaid cards  

$1.50 to transfer money from the card to checking

NetSpend charges $2.25 for out-of-network A.T.M. withdrawals, 

50 cents for balance inquiries via a representative, 

50 cents for a purchase using the card, 

$5 for statement reprints, 

$10 to close an account, 

$25 for a balance-protection program and 

$7.50 after 60 days of inactivity,

The Federal Reserve has banned such fees for credit and debit cards, but no protections exist on prepaid cards.

So the worker gets screwed again - By ALEC

People - it's time you figured it out.

ALEC HATE$ people.

ALEC legislators HATE$ people.

The only people ALEC and ALEC legislators like are

Corporations

Corporations, are people, my friend.

Screw the working stiff.