SAVOR YOUR RIGHT TO EAT LUNCH
This headline caught my eye and made me read the article carefully: Changes sought in rules on lunch breaks Governor says plan would limit lawsuits

Governor Schwartzenegger wants to reduce the amount of lawsuits placed upon businesses failing to let their employees take a lunch break. One of the governator's goals is to keep business and bring business back to California. He claims that there are so many regulations and lawsuits keeping them away. Maybe so. But shouldn't he be more concerned about the treatment and conditions for the labor force - not the businesses milking them?

Of course not. I see this clearly now. Even though I didn't vote for him, I did give him a chance to prove himself a worthy leader. His moderate politics won the benefit of my doubt but I am now skeptical. His Republican values are starting to rub me the wrong way. Don't get me wrong. I agree that businesses should be enticed to stay or return to the Golden State. But I don't think this is the right way.

The governator and his administration believe that there are too many lawsuits. I once saw a billboard stating: "Lawsuits are the American Disease." May it is, maybe it isn't. I think most people in Sacramento think it is. In fact, they think, "it is an emergency." (Read the last few paragraphs of the article linked above.) Shortage of jobs is an emergency but making the large number of lawsuits the scapegoat is indirectly placing the working force the ultimate scapegoat.

The problem isn't the number of lawsuits - it's the number of companies being sued. This number should indicate how many companies do not give their employees the right to eat. The current law states that employers must allow their employees to take a 30 minute lunch break before their 5th hour of work. The governator and his administration want to revise the requirement to be before the 6th hour of work. If a basic fulltime working day is 8 hours, the 6th hour isn't even near half the time an employee is at work.

The government should look out for the working person - not the corporations. Sure, these companies stimulate an economy, but a healthy population makes all the parts run. Employers and employees can't have one without the other. It's like the human body. If the mind is like the employer and the body is like the employee, losing one or the other won't do you much good. "The body cannot live without the mind," saidMorpheus in The Matrix. And it's true vice versa.

Take that Mr. Governator!