Great persistence is required to get a pro-worker law passed in a Republican-dominated, right-to-work (for less) state.

But that's just what Steve Ryan, Omaha 543M vice president, and other local members displayed in finally winning a new lunch break law in Nebraska this year. It took four years of working with legislator and other groups in the state.

"It's a miracle," Ryan said, noting that Nebraska's unicameral legislature has 33 Republicans, 13 Democrats, and three independents. The bill was passed on a 49 to 0 vote and signed into law by Republican Gov. Mike Johanns.

Ryan said Ray Woodward, Jerry Umbenhower, and he–all from Lincoln 221M, which has since merged with Omaha 543M–began working with the state AFL-CIO four years ago to revise Nebraska's lunch break law.

Ryan explained that employees at the former American Signature printing plant in Lincoln where he works had been on a 35-hour workweek for many years. They got paid overtime to work through their lunch breaks. They then went to a 37-1/2 hour workweek but still got paid if they worked through lunch.

Then Quebecor bought the plant and forced employees into a straight 40-hour workweek. Quebecor also instituted its preferred 12-hour shifts for the 24-hour operation and made employees work through lunch without compensation.

"Most of our pressroom–eight out of nine presses–are on 12-hour days," Ryan said. "Joggers are standing in one spot. Before we got this lunch break, joggers had to eat lunch while standing."

Ryan added that eating while working at presses presents added danger because chemicals from the presses can get onto food and drink and be ingested.

The state's previous lunch law required employers to provide 30 consecutive unpaid minutes for lunch between the hours of 12 noon and 1 PM. However, manufacturing and assembly plants and workshops with 24-hour operations in three eight-hour shifts were exempt.

Democratic state Sen. John Synowiecki of Omaha introduced the lunch break bill that dropped the noon to 1 PM stipulation and the exemption for 24-hour operations.

Synowiecki said he proposed the revisions "after being made aware . . . [that] certain manufacturers in Nebraska [were] taking advantage of the three-shift exemption currently in place by not allowing lunch breaks to their employees."

Ryan said that, in hearings before the legislature's Business and Labor Committee, "we basically made it a human rights issue. The goal should be to get some kind of lunch break. If you present it as a human rights issue, [lawmakers] had to think about what their constituents would think."