Workers Deserve Leadership That Listens

Union members, public employees, service workers, educators, healthcare workers, skilled trades workers, federal workers, VA workers, retirees, caregivers, and working families often ask candidates where they stand on collective bargaining, fair wages, safe workplaces, retirement security, public-sector worker protections, paid leave, childcare, apprenticeships, and the future of work. Voters deserve the same transparency. Here is where I stand.

Why This Matters

When workers cannot reach jobs because transportation options are limited, cannot afford housing near employment centers, or cannot access training opportunities, economic mobility suffers. Labor policy, transportation policy, workforce housing policy, and economic development policy are interconnected. Effective workforce policy should address all of them together.

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Housing, healthcare, insurance, childcare, transportation, wages, and retirement security are not separate issues. They are worker issues. Families in Hillsborough and Pasco Counties are being squeezed from every direction, and Congress must strengthen the conditions that allow people who work hard to live with dignity.

Labor built America’s middle class. Strong workers, strong unions, workplace safety, fair wages, and retirement security are essential to rebuilding economic opportunity.

Why This Matters to Me

As a small business owner and retired Certified Financial Planner, I understand both sides of the economic equation: businesses need stability and workers need wages, benefits, safety, and dignity.

My career helping families plan for housing, healthcare, retirement, disability, caregiving, and long-term financial security taught me that wages and benefits are not abstract. They determine whether families can pay rent, afford care, raise children, retire with dignity, and survive crisis.

My Record

Transportation and workforce access were central priorities throughout my public service. I chaired the Transportation Management Area Leadership Group for Hillsborough County and consistently advocated for transportation investments that connected workers to jobs, education, healthcare, and opportunity. I also served as Chair of the Affordable Housing Advisory Board and worked to advance housing solutions that help teachers, nurses, first responders, seniors, and working families remain in the communities they serve.

As a Hillsborough County Commissioner, I focused on transportation, infrastructure, affordable housing, environmental stewardship, workforce development, public safety, and responsible fiscal management while working collaboratively with labor organizations and community stakeholders throughout the Tampa Bay region.

During previous campaigns for Hillsborough County Commission, I received support from the Florida AFL-CIO West Central Florida Labor Council and numerous affiliated labor organizations.

Although I have not been a union member, I have worked closely with organized labor throughout my public service career and have consistently supported workers’ rights, collective bargaining, workplace safety, apprenticeship programs, prevailing wage protections, and labor’s role in building strong communities and a thriving middle class.

My Position

I support the PRO Act, collective bargaining rights, prevailing wage protections, Buy America policies, strong overtime protections, accurate worker classification, workplace safety protections, registered apprenticeships, public-sector worker rights, protections against retaliation, and strong protections for civil servants.

I support an economy that rewards work, not just wealth. Strong worker bargaining power, fair tax policy, corporate accountability, overtime protections, and accurate worker classification are essential to rebuilding the middle class.

The Right to Organize and the PRO Act

I support workers’ right to organize and collectively bargain. Strong unions help create safer workplaces, higher wages, better benefits, and a stronger middle class.

I would support legislation that protects workers from retaliation, strengthens bargaining rights, improves remedies for violations, and ensures newly organized workers can secure a first contract.

Public Service and Federal Workers

Government works best when public servants can do their jobs without fear of retaliation or political interference. I support merit-based civil service, fair pay, just-cause protections, collective bargaining rights, and restoration and protection of bargaining rights for federal employees and Veterans Affairs workers.

Effective government depends on talented professionals who can apply their expertise, speak honestly about risks, uphold ethical standards, and serve the public without fear of political retribution.

Fair Wages, Overtime, and Worker Classification

I support raising the national minimum wage and indexing it to inflation, expanding overtime eligibility, requiring accurate worker classification, and protecting workers from wage suppression.

No worker should be denied fair pay because an employer misclassifies them or uses loopholes to avoid basic labor protections.

Buy America, Procurement, and Good Jobs

Taxpayer-funded investments should create jobs here in America whenever possible. Strong Buy America policies support domestic manufacturing, critical supply chains, national security, and family-sustaining jobs.

Public dollars should support high-road employers, worker protections, strong labor standards, and public value.

Workplace Safety and Health

Every worker deserves to return home safely at the end of the day. I support strong OSHA and MSHA enforcement, workplace heat protections, workplace violence prevention, whistleblower protections, adequate funding for workplace safety programs, and accountability for repeat violators.

Workplace safety should never be sacrificed for short-term profits.

AI and the Future of Work

Technology should work for workers, not the other way around. Artificial intelligence should benefit workers rather than displace, surveil, or exploit them.

Workers deserve transparency, human review, privacy protections, retraining opportunities, whistleblower protections, opt-out or override options where appropriate, and a seat at the table before new technologies affect jobs, livelihoods, creative work, health, or safety.

Workforce Housing and Worker Opportunity

Workforce housing is labor policy. Teachers, nurses, first responders, healthcare workers, service workers, skilled-trades professionals, and public employees should be able to live in or near the communities they serve.

Rising housing costs create workforce shortages, increase commuting burdens, reduce economic mobility, and make it harder for employers to recruit and retain employees. Strong communities require both good jobs and housing that working people can afford.

Work and Family Policies

No worker should have to choose between caring for a loved one and earning a paycheck. I support national paid family and medical leave, paid sick days, affordable childcare, stronger support for caregivers, and protections for childcare workers.

I also support overtime protections and prevailing wage laws because taxpayer-funded work should sustain good jobs, fair wages, and high-quality public projects.

Retirement Security and Pensions

Retirement security is tied directly to wages, pensions, collective bargaining, fair retirement savings rules, and Social Security.

I support protecting and strengthening Social Security, safeguarding pensions, requiring financial professionals to act in clients’ best interests, protecting workers from unfair financial practices, and ensuring Americans can retire with dignity.

Immigration and Worker Protections

America needs an immigration system that is secure, orderly, humane, and consistent with our values. I support comprehensive immigration reform that includes a pathway to earned legal status, protects workers from exploitation, strengthens labor standards, keeps families together, supports asylum and refugee obligations, and ensures employers cannot use immigration status to suppress wages or undermine worker protections.

Detailed FL-12 Worker Examples

A teacher or school staff member should be fairly paid, respected, and able to afford living in or near the community they serve.

A healthcare worker should have safe staffing, workplace safety protections, fair pay, and a voice in workplace decisions.

A construction worker on a taxpayer-funded project should benefit from prevailing wage standards, safety rules, and strong enforcement against wage theft or misclassification.

A federal employee or VA worker should be able to perform public service without political retaliation or loss of basic bargaining rights.

A parent should not have to choose between caring for a sick child and keeping a paycheck.

A worker affected by AI should receive notice, transparency, human review, privacy protection, and access to retraining and income supports.

Evidence-Based Labor and Economic Security Scorecard

Labor policy should be measured by whether it improves wages, safety, bargaining power, family stability, and retirement security.

Metrics should include wage growth, overtime access, union organizing rights, first-contract success, workplace injuries, heat illness protections, wage theft enforcement, worker classification accuracy, apprenticeship completion, paid-leave access, childcare affordability, pension security, and retirement readiness.

The central test is simple: Can people who work full time live with dignity, stay safe on the job, care for their families, and retire securely?

How I Would Lead in Congress

I will be a partner to working people when votes are on the line. I will support policies that strengthen unions, raise wages, protect pensions, make workplaces safer, defend public servants, expand workforce training, protect workers from retaliation, and rebuild the middle class.

Workers deserve leadership that listens.

Invest in our future - Donate today

Why This Matters in FL-12

Families in Pasco and Hillsborough Counties deserve wages that keep up with costs, safe workplaces, affordable childcare, access to healthcare, retirement security, transportation options, and housing they can afford.

Florida’s 12th Congressional District deserves a representative who understands how labor, affordability, healthcare, education, housing, and retirement security are connected.

Leadership Matters.

Learn more: kimberlyoverman.com

Volunteer: kimberlyoverman.com/volunteer

Contribute: secure.numero.ai/contribute/Overman-for-Congress

Paid for by Overman for Congress

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.