Date: 2013-04-12
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker. more than 75 years ago. Congress empowered the American worker through the National Labor Relations Act to form or join a union and bargain for a better life. That law and the rights it guarantees have served this country wellit has built the middle class. it has brought us the 40hour workweek. it has brought us safe workplaces. These rights have given to millions of families economic security and the prospect that their children could build even better lives. but for the last 2 years. these rights have been under persistent and unrelenting attack by this House and this Republican leadership. There are more unemployed workers in this country today than private sector union members. Instead of working to create decent jobs for the unemployed. the majority insists on attacking the rights of the employed. At a time of stagnant wages and when businesses across the country are explaining that their number one problem is a lack of customer demand. we could be doing something useful today. like raising the minimum wage. Instead. we are debating a bill that undermines the ability of workers to bargain for better wages or for decent pensions or for safe workplaces. H.R. 1120 would stop the National Labor Relations Board from enforcing labor law. While the bill is in effect. the agency would not be permitted to issue any new decisions. enforce existing decisions. or advance any rulemaking. That means its open season on working people. The bill tells employers: if you want to retaliate against a worker for trying to speak out or to organize. if you want to fire her. go ahead. because there wont be any effective government response. By eliminating the authority of the government to enforce the law. this bill effectively takes away every labor right that Congress gave workers to help them better their own lives. Its that simple. Take. for instance. a single mother who works at a hospital. changing bedpans. lifting patients day in and day out. She works hard. She likes her job. but she thinks that she and her fellow employees deserve a raise. After her shift. a supervisor overhears her chatting with a coworker about organizing a union. The next day. she is called into the managers office. and she is fired for talking unionsomething that is a protected right under the law. This firing is illegal. and she is entitled to her job back. but under H.R. 1120. she would be out of luck. Not only would she be out of luck. but over 23.000 workers a year would be out of luck because they simply exercised the rights that are legal under the law. The law says that employers dont get to retaliate. but for those thousands of workers now. they will have lost their jobs. lost their livelihoods. lost the ability to support their families. They will have no recourse because of this legislation if it becomes law. How fair can that possibly be? I would also add that. in 2010. about 17.000 unfair labor practices were filed against employers by employees. but over 6.000 were filed against the unions for unfair labor practices. The fact of the matter is. for this legislation. it works against both employers and employees. and it brings chaos to the workplace. It gives the right to illegal strikes. It gives the right to illegal firings. It gives the right to illegally take away the wages of a worker. That simply cannot be tolerated in this country. but thats what this legislation does. Its an effort that started out a number of years ago on this committee with the Republicans attacking the National Labor Relations Act and the National Labor Relations Board. and we should not allow this to stand. We understand that theyre upset with the recess appointments. but they werent upset with some 300 other recess appointments. In fact. Mr. ROE just said that those were constitutional. but thats not what the court said. The court said that all of these recess appointments were unconstitutional. So where are we today? We have sitting before the Senate. offered by the President. a panel of appointments that they can approve. and they can cure this problem if this problem. in fact. really exists. We dont know that yet because the Supreme Court hasnt ruled on it. While we are waiting for the Supreme Court to rule. they want to pass this legislation. and if they pass this legislation. the fact of the matter is both employers and employees are going to be hurt. Its going to cost them a great deal of money. and its going to cause a great deal of chaos in the workplace because of what the circuit court said. I worry. while they complain about the recess appointments. that its the very filibusters by the Republicans that demanded that the recess appointments take place.