Sometimes the organized labor movement isn't very organized. Other times, such as what happened earlier this month, look out.

"Labor unions are working this very, very hard," said Rep. Jack Quinn, R-N.Y. "It's a core issue for them, just like collective bargaining, like minimum wage."

Quinn was referring to a piece of legislation that has really raised the hackles of the labor movement, the so-called "Family Time Flexibility Act." House Resolution 1119 would allow employers to give workers compensatory time off in place of time-and-a-half pay for every overtime hour worked. The resolution was scheduled for a vote on June 5, but was placed on the shelf the day before by Republican leaders because they didn't have enough votes.

"After pushing this bill for months, the Republican leadership finally realized that not all of their members would blindly go along with unraveling the basic right to overtime pay, which could literally take billions out of the paychecks of working families," says AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney. "I commend the Republicans who stood up to their leadership on this issue and stood with working families."

Organized labor and its supporters have called this measure "the comp-time bill." The AFL-CIO said the proposal would give employers more control over time spent on the job by their workers, undermine the 40-hour work-week and could result in pay cuts for working families that depend on overtime pay to meet expenses.

Since March 27, working families have sent their representatives 226,517 letters and made more than 12,000 phone calls to members of Congress explaining their opposition to the comp time bills, the AFL-CIO said.

Republican wondered what all the fuss was about, saying the measure would allow employees who work more than 40 hours in a week to choose between premium pay or compensatory time off scheduled at a later date, both at the time-and-a-half hourly rate. It is now illegal for private companies to offer comp time as an option to millions of workers covered by the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act.

But labor leaders say the current overtime law acts as a protection to the 40-hour work week because companies wanting more work from their employees now must provide premium pay - and often think twice about it. They also think that if the bill becomes law, employers will assign overtime only to workers who agree to choose comp time.

In addition, the legislation provides no meaningful protection that would prevent employers from requiring workers to take compensatory time off instead of receiving their salary. And, employers would also have the last word as to when employee comp time could be taken.

"The bottom line is that President George W. Bush and the GOP leadership could not secure the votes needed to pass this outrageous attempt to roll back the 40-hour work-week and overtime pay," House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (Md.) said of the Republican decision to pull H.R. 1119 from consideration. "This bill - derisively known by working men and women as the 'comp time' bill - is a dagger pointed at the heart of the 40-hour workweek, and the Republican leadership has been licking its chops to bring it up for a vote on the House Floor."

This is the second time in recent weeks that House Republicans have pulled H.R. 1119 from a vote. Following protests from union activists, women and family groups, Republicans also pulled the bill in May. At press time, it wasn't clear when or if the bill would be re-introduced.