[Senate Hearing 118-210]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]



                                                 S. Hrg. 118-210; Pt. 1
                                                   
                     STANDING UP AGAINST CORPORATE 
                    GREED: HOW UNIONS ARE IMPROVING 
                     THE LIVES OF WORKING FAMILIES 

=======================================================================





                                HEARING

                              [before the]

                    COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION,
                          LABOR, AND PENSIONS

                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                    ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION

                               ----------                              

                           NOVEMBER 14, 2023

                               ----------                              

                              Part 1 of 2

                               ----------                              

                       Printed for the use of the
          Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions





               [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] 














                     STANDING UP AGAINST CORPORATE 
                    GREED: HOW UNIONS ARE IMPROVING 
                     THE LIVES OF WORKING FAMILIES 
                              PART 1 OF 2 











                                                 S. Hrg. 118-210; Pt. 1

                     STANDING UP AGAINST CORPORATE
                    GREED: HOW UNIONS ARE IMPROVING
                     THE LIVES OF WORKING FAMILIES

=======================================================================



                                HEARING

                                 OF THE

                    COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION,
                          LABOR, AND PENSIONS

                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                    ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION

                                   ON

       EXAMINING THE STANDING UP AGAINST CORPORATE  GREED, FOCUS- 
        ING ON HOW UNIONS ARE IMPROVING THE LIVES OF WORKING FAM- 
        ILIES
                               __________

                           NOVEMBER 14, 2023
                               __________

                              Part 1 of 2
                               __________

 Printed for the use of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and 
                                Pensions

                
                
                
                [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] 


                

        Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov 
                                 ______

                   U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE  

54-523 PDF                 WASHINGTON : 2024 














        
          COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR, AND PENSIONS

                 BERNIE SANDERS (I), Vermont, Chairman
PATTY MURRAY, Washington             BILL CASSIDY, M.D., Louisiana, 
ROBERT P. CASEY, JR., Pennsylvania     Ranking Member
TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin             RAND PAUL, Kentucky
CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY, Connecticut   SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine
TIM KAINE, Virginia                  LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska
MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire         MIKE BRAUN, Indiana
TINA SMITH, Minnesota                ROGER MARSHALL, M.D., Kansas
BEN RAY LUJAN, New Mexico            MITT ROMNEY, Utah
JOHN HICKENLOOPER, Colorado          TOMMY TUBERVILLE, Alabama
ED MARKEY, Massachusetts             MARKWAYNE MULLIN, Oklahoma
                                     TED BUDD, North Carolina

                Warren Gunnels, Majority Staff Director
              Bill Dauster, Majority Deputy Staff Director
                Amanda Lincoln, Minority Staff Director
           Danielle Janowski, Minority Deputy Staff Director 
















           
                            C O N T E N T S

                              ----------                              

                               STATEMENTS

                       TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2023

                                                                   Page

                                 Part 1
                           Committee Members

Sanders, Hon. Bernie, Chairman, Committee on Health, Education, 
  Labor, and Pensions, Opening statement.........................     1
Cassidy, Hon. Bill, Ranking Member, U.S. Senator from the State 
  of Louisiana, Opening statement................................     3

                               Witnesses

Fain, Shawn, International President, UAW, Detroit, MI...........     4
    Prepared statement...........................................     7
O'Brien, Sean M., General President, International Brotherhood of 
  Teamsters, Washington, DC......................................    10
    Prepared statement...........................................    13
    Summary statement............................................    19
Nelson, Sara, International President, Association of Flight 
  Attendants-Communication Workers of America, Washington, DC....    20
    Prepared statement...........................................    23
Furchtgott Roth, Diana, Director, Center for Energy, Climate, and 
  Environment and The Herbert and Joyce Morgan Fellow in Energy 
  and Environmental Policy, The Heritage Foundation, Washington, 
  DC.............................................................    33
    Prepared statement...........................................    36
Higgins, Sean, Research Fellow, Competitive Enterprise Institute, 
  Arlington, VA..................................................    39
    Prepared statement...........................................    41
    Summary statement............................................    43

                          ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

Cassidy, Hon. Bill:
    List of Plans in Critical, Declining, and Endangered Status..    73
    Fiat Chrysler's Guilty Plea..................................    74
Casey, Hon. Robert:
    Greed-flation Report.........................................    76
Sanders, Hon. Bernie:
    Statement for the Record by The United Steel, Paper and 
      Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial 
      and Service Workers International Union (USW)..............    92
    News clips-UAW...............................................    94
    Statement for the Record Union of Concerned Scientists.......   109
    UAW TA Combined Documents....................................   120

                                 Part 2

Sanders, Hon. Bernie:
    UAW TA Combined Documents Continued..........................  1033

                        QUESTIONS FOR THE RECORD

Response by Shawn Fain, Sean O'Brien, and Sara Nelson to 
  questions of:
    Sen. Lujan...................................................  2155
Response by Sean O'Brien to questions of:
    Sen. Marshall................................................  2157
Response by Sean O'Brien to questions of:
    Sen. Murphy..................................................  2158
Response by Sara Nelson, Shawn Fain, and Sean O'Brien to 
  questions of:
    Sen. Murray..................................................  2160

 
                     STANDING UP AGAINST CORPORATE                       
                    GREED: HOW UNIONS ARE IMPROVING 
                     THE LIVES OF WORKING FAMILIES 

                              ----------                              


                       Tuesday, November 14, 2023

                                       U.S. Senate,
       Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,
                                                    Washington, DC.

    The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:02 a.m., in 
room 430, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Bernard Sanders, 
Chairman of the Committee, presiding.

    Present: Senators Sanders [presiding], Murray, Casey, 
Baldwin, Hassan, Smith, Lujan, Hickenlooper, Markey, Cassidy, 
Braun, Marshall, Tuberville, and Mullin.

                  OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR SANDERS

    The Chair. The Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and 
Pensions will come to order. The title of our hearing this 
morning is, Standing Up Against Corporate Greed, How Unions Are 
Improving the Lives of Working Families.

    We are delighted that Shawn Fain, the President of the 
United Auto Workers, Sean O'Brien, President of the Teamsters, 
and Sarah Nelson, the President of the Flight Attendants Union, 
are here with us today, and I look forward to their testimony.

    Ranking Member Cassidy has invited Diana Furchtgott Roth 
with the Heritage Foundation and Sean Higgins with the 
Competitive Enterprise Institute, and we welcome them as well.

    The issue we are talking about today is really not 
complicated, and that is tens of millions of Americans are 
struggling to put food on the table, pay their rent, get by 
while the wealthiest people in this country are doing better 
than they have ever done in the history of America.

    What I hope every Member is interested in discussing is, 
how do we change that? How do we create an economy that works 
for all of us, all of our people, and not just the few? And 
when we talk about the state of our economy and the working 
class in America, there is a lot to be concerned about.

    One of the issues that we don't talk about enough is that 
over the last 50 years, 50 years, despite huge increases in 
technology and worker productivity, the average American worker 
is making about $50 a week less than he or she did 50 years 
ago.

    How did that happen? And I can remember growing up in a 
working class family, in a working class neighborhood. Back 
then, it was a few years ago. Most families had one person 
working.

    Mostly men. How does that happen? One worked, and today, 
almost without exception you need two breadwinners to support 
the family. How does that happen despite all of the new 
technology and increase in worker productivity? And some of the 
realities of today is that right now we have more income and 
wealth inequality than any time since the Gilded Age.

    Today in America, three people, we got to deal with this 
from a moral and economic perspective. Three people have more 
wealth than the bottom half of American society, 165 million 
Americans today, while the people on top are doing phenomenally 
well. 60 percent of our people are living paycheck to paycheck.

    Today, while millions of ordinary people are struggling to 
pay the rent, pay for childcare, and put food on the table, the 
CEOs of major corporations are now making 350 times as much as 
their average workers.

    According to the RAND Corporation, not exactly a socialist 
enterprise, over the last 50 years, there has been a massive 
redistribution of wealth. Since 1975, over $50 trillion in 
wealth has gone from the bottom 90 percent to the top 1 
percent. And it is not just income and wealth inequality that 
we have got to worry about.

    We are seeing more and more concentration of ownership in 
every sector of our economy. Fewer and fewer large corporations 
control what is being produced and distributed. Meanwhile, 
while that is going on, and that should be of major concern to 
every American, certainly every Member of Congress, there is 
some very good news out there.

    That is what we are going to be discussing today. And that 
is that all over this country, we are seeing workers standing 
up and fighting back against the unprecedented level of 
corporate greed taking place. This year alone, over 450,000 
workers in America have gone on strike for better wages, better 
benefits, and better working conditions. That is up 900 percent 
compared to just 2 years ago.

    Last year, union membership in America increased by 273,000 
to a total of 14.3 million workers. Last year, employees in 
nearly 2,600 worksites in America filed petitions with the NLRB 
to form a union, up more than 50 percent from 2 years ago.

    According to the latest Gallup poll, 67 percent of the 
American people support labor unions. In other words, in 
America today, more workers want to join unions. More workers 
are joining unions, and more workers are going out on strike to 
improve their working conditions than we have seen in a very 
long time.

    Many of those unions, we are going to hear about that 
today, are winning very strong contracts for their workers. And 
what we are seeing in these historic union victories are not 
only improving the lives of union members, but that is 
beginning to spill over into the lives of nonunion workers in 
America as well.

    We are going to be discussing this today, but just 
magically don't know how it happened. We are seeing Honda just 
announced that it would be increasing the wages of their 
nonunion workers in America by 11 percent. Toyota 9 to 10 
percent. Hyundai also announced a major increase just by 
accident.

    No doubt had nothing to do with what the UAW recently 
accomplished after the Teamsters won a strong contract to 
increase wages and benefits for their workers at UPS. Amazon 
increased wages for its nonunion warehouse and delivery drivers 
as well. And it is not just blue collar workers.

    We are seeing white collar workers organize as well. In my 
state and all over the country, you are seeing residents in 
hospitals, doctors, MDs organizing. You are seeing nurses 
organizing.

    You are seeing young people on college campuses, graduate 
students who really have been exploited for years, organizing 
in large numbers. Obviously, we are seeing actors organizing as 
well.

    That is the good news. The bad news is that for far too 
long, many corporations are doing everything that they can to 
intimidate, coerce, threaten, or prevent workers from 
exercising their Constitutional right to form a union and 
negotiate a fair contract.

    We all know why that is, because when workers are in a 
union, they get substantially better wages, working conditions, 
pensions, and other benefits.

    That is why it is absolutely essential that we pass 
legislation like the PRO Act, to make it easier for workers to 
organize. So, with that, let me give the mic over to Senator 
Cassidy.

    Senator Cassidy.

                  OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR CASSIDY

    Senator Cassidy. Thank you, Chair Sanders. And Chair 
Sanders has acknowledged the progress that has been made by 
organized labor, which creates in my mind, a little bit of a 
puzzle as to why we are having the hearing.

    We are not conducting oversight and there doesn't seem to 
be a legislative purpose. The title of this hearing suggests 
that unions are functioning well, and it appears that they are, 
and that means that partisan legislation like the PRO Act is 
not necessary.

    Unions have a good message, apparently, about their ability 
to negotiate contracts on behalf of their members. If that is 
true, then they don't need the PRO Act to eliminate secret 
ballot union elections, which could expose workers to 
retaliation and intimidation.

    Unions shouldn't need the PRO Act to open workers to forced 
or coerced unionization by banning right to work laws in States 
like Louisiana, in my state, that protect workers' freedom to 
choose whether to join a union or not.

    They should not need--the union should not need the PRO Act 
or the Biden administration to impose radical joint employer 
rules to make it easier to unionize the 8 million franchise 
workers while undermining the business model of the 
establishments that employ them. If unions can convince workers 
that it is in their best interest to join, then there shouldn't 
be changes to the independent contractor definition.

    This policy, including the PRO Act, would take away the 
ability of 27 million workers to choose how to earn a living. 
Why? Well, effectively to make them susceptible to forced or 
coerced unionization. Now I support a worker's ability to 
unionize.

    The right of workers to organize and be represented by a 
union is protected under the National Labor Relations Act. But 
if the benefits of joining a union are so good, and I am sure 
that is the testimony we will hear today, then there is no 
reason union should have to coerce or strong arm people to 
join.

    They certainly don't need Government to help them coerce 
and strong arm. I will remind my colleagues that this Committee 
already voted on the PRO Act with all Republicans opposing. 
There is no sign that the Majority Leader will bring it to the 
Senate floor, and it doesn't even have unanimous support from 
Democrats.

    But regardless, this Committee has already devoted a markup 
to progressive legislation on unionizing and bargaining. So, 
what is the purpose of today's hearing other than holding, I 
hate to say it, a taxpayer funded pep rally for big labor 
unions.

    We have public health programs that expired September 30th, 
and we haven't had a hearing for the last 2 weeks. There are 
serious unmet responsibilities of this Committee, but this 
issue takes precedence and is most deserving of our time.

    If we wish to celebrate those achievements that unions have 
recently achieved, that is the Chair's prerogative. But we 
should point out that it has been 54 days since this Committee 
has held a markup or hearing to consider actual legislation.

    Hopefully we can get back on track and use the limited time 
we have this year to get the rest of our reauthorizations over 
the finish line. With that, I yield.

    The Chair. Thank you, Senator Cassidy. Now, we will hear 
from our witnesses. Our first witness is Shawn Fain, the 
International President of the United Automobile Workers.

    Mr. Fain is a 29 year member of the UAW and got his start 
with union as an electrician at Chrysler Kokomo casting plant. 
He served this local union at every level and was elected UAW 
President this year in the first ever direct election for the 
union's executive board.

    Mr. Fain, thanks for being with us.

       STATEMENT OF SHAWN FAIN, INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT, 
                       UAW, DETROIT, MI 

    Mr. Fain. Thank you, Chairman Sanders. Good morning, and 
good morning, Dr. Cassidy and Members of the Committee. I am 
honored to join this hearing as the first directly elected 
International President of the UAW, representing over 400,000 
active members and 600,000 retired members across a wide range 
of sectors from auto manufacturing to higher education.

    My roots in the auto industry run very deep back to the 
first early days of the UAW, when my grandparents, my--one of 
my grandfathers was hired in Chrysler in 1937, the year the UAW 
organized Chrysler. That job was life changing for my 
grandparents, all four of them. Their generation came out of a 
Great Depression.

    All four of my grandparents migrated from the South in 
extreme poverty conditions. One of my grandparents was hurt and 
siblings were left in an orphanage because their parents 
couldn't afford to raise them.

    When they moved North and were able to get good paying 
union jobs, it changed their lives. It is the reason I am 
sitting here today. That changed the entire trajectory for my 
family.

    I share that same pride when I was hired in 29 years ago. 
But throughout my 29 years as a UAW member, I have seen drastic 
changes. I witnessed our working standards and conditions 
eroded at the hand of bad trade agreements designed to drive a 
race to the bottom.

    Many of the decisions were being made under the guise of 
helping the companies be more competitive, which helping 
competition in my world is code for corporate greed and a race 
to the bottom because that is what it drives. Find the lowest 
paying person and compare yourself to that.

    That is not something we should aspire to be as a Nation. 
Workers got caught on the losing end of a one sided class war. 
This led to the big three closing or spinning off 65 plants in 
the last 20 years.

    In 2009, our members were unfairly villainized for 
everything that ailed the big three. Our members, both active 
and retired, made massive sacrifices, such as the suspension of 
cost of living, jobs--language provisions, just to name a few.

    All those sacrifices borne by our members were made to help 
the big three stay afloat and remain competitive, and all that 
did was feed corporate greed and continued a race to the 
bottom.

    Despite that, and despite the plant closures that tore 
apart communities and how our members lives were turned upside 
down, our members have always delivered. With recent success in 
the big three, our union just showed the world what is possible 
when workers unite to fight for more, to fight against 
corporate greed.

    Workers can win. Only a small percentage of working class 
Americans have the protection afforded by collective 
bargaining. Rather, the mass majority are treated like second 
class citizens employed at the will of employers.

    We want better for America, and you should want better for 
Americans. In the past 6 months, we began to turn the tide in 
this class war for the American worker. On September 14th, the 
UAW launched our Stand Up strike. It was a new strategy to take 
on corporate greed at Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis, 
which is Chrysler's parent company.

    It allowed us to integrate our members into a national 
campaign where workers strikes strategically grew and escalated 
over time, giving our union bargaining teams maximum power to 
negotiate a record contract for the first time in our history. 
We struck at all three companies and in less than 7 weeks.

    We want justice for our members and other workers. We won 
things our industry hasn't seen in over 15 years. Victories 
that will instantly change people's lives overnight. Getting 
back to setting a standard, giving people purchasing power to 
move the economy.

    Never in our history we negotiated the reopening of a 
plant. We won victories that will instantly, overnight change 
life. Belvidere, Illinois was written off for dead. As many 
people know, we not only got work back for that plant, but also 
a new battery plant. Both these plants are going to add 
thousands of jobs to the Belvidere, Illinois community.

    That is what the union can achieve through collective 
bargaining. There is far too much in our agreement to detail in 
a short testimony. But for the major areas, we raise wages 
dramatically for over 100,000 workers.

    We took a major step toward ensuring a just transition in 
electric vehicles. We improved retirement security for hundreds 
of thousands of retirees. And last, we secured jobs. Job 
security was a major part of this bargaining for current 
employees and future members. And we bargained for language 
that allows us to strike these companies if they don't honor 
their commitments, which has been a huge issue in the past.

    Looking at the success of our contract, we are seeing that 
spill over into the nonunion industry after we announced our 
tentative agreements. But the big three, Toyota made an 
unprecedented move and reduced their progression to full pay to 
4 years from 8 years.

    They gave their employees a 9 percent pay increase. Honda 
raised wages 11 percent. And just yesterday, Hyundai announced 
that they are going to follow our pattern and raise wages by 25 
percent for their employees through the year 2028.

    We call that the UAW bump, and that stands for you are 
welcome. And we are very proud of that. And when these members 
and these workers decide to organize and join the UAW, they are 
going to realize the full benefit of union membership and get 
what they fully do. We know the fears being put out there now.

    Nonunion companies are doing this because they are scared. 
They are scared that their workers see a better life and the 
companies trying to head that off. They have used fear, 
uncertainty, and division to try to break the unions. And I 
promise you, here, those days are over.

    The American public overwhelmingly supported what we have 
done. 75 percent of Americans said they supported our 
initiatives. The American public is fed up with an economy that 
works for the benefit of the billionaire class at the expense 
of the working class.

    The working class in this country is fed up and will not 
fall for a union busting playbook for any closed plants, firing 
union activists, pitting workers against each other. We are 
going to organize like hell to help thousands of workers in 
this country, primarily in the South, to win their union and 
raise the living standards in this free entire working class.

    We have no interest in being a private welfare state. The 
working class needs this Committee and the entire Congress to 
step up. You all have an essential role to play, not only 
supporting our fights and other fights like ours, but to finish 
the job for economic and social justice for the entire working 
class.

    We want to organize. We want the working class to organize, 
to bring dignity to their work, and enjoy the fruits of 
unionism and have a voice on the job. So, for that, we need to 
marshal the Federal Government, not just as allies cheering 
from the sidelines. We need a pro-worker Congress, guided by a 
vision of liberty and justice for all.

    Elected leaders that understand that economic justice is a 
national security risk for all of those who don't have it. It 
is a fight worth fighting for. We must bring that fight into 
the workplace as well as the streets, but also in the halls of 
power in the chambers of the U.S. Senate.

    The UAW won wage increases from 33 to 250 percent over the 
life of this four and a half year agreement for our members----

    The Chair. Mr. Fain, I am going to ask you to--finish up.

    Mr. Fain. Okay. Thank you. We won for the first time in 15 
years, meaningful gains. And one thing I will leave you with, 
there are three crises that we need to deal with, income 
inequality, a transition to a green economy.

    We have to have an economy, an environment we can live in, 
sustainable, and retirement security. They are all linked, and 
they are the fight for our future. What kind of economy do we 
want to live in?

    What kind of planet do we want to live on, and what kinds 
of lives are we going to lead? Walter Reuther, the great leader 
of the UAW in the 20th century, spoke of our union as the 
American vanguard.

    As he said, we don't mind leading. We don't mind being the 
first to take action. We don't mind striking for social and 
economic justice. It is a duty and the privilege of the UAW to 
lead. But we need reinforcements.

    If this Committee wishes to live up to its name, the HELP 
Committee, it is time to help the cause of economic and social 
justice in this country by bringing victories to the auto 
workers. Just realize that the entire working class, especially 
in public education, is a group we haven't talked much about.

    But we need to look out for all of them. Public education 
has been villainized and it is time to put the working class 
first. So, thank you for having me today and being able to 
testify on behalf of the UAW members.

    [The prepared statement of Mr. Fain follows:] 
    
                    prepared statement of shawn fain 
                    
    Good morning, Chairman Sanders, Dr. Cassidy, and Members of the 
Committee.

    I am honored to join this hearing as the International President of 
the UAW, proudly representing close to 400,000 active members and 
nearly 600,000 retirees, across a wide range of sectors, from auto 
manufacturing to higher education.

    My roots in the auto industry run back to the early days when my 
Grandpa was hired in at Chrysler in 1937, the year the UAW first 
organized Chrysler.

    That job was life-changing for my Grandpa. His generation took 
pride in not only being a UAW member, but in working for a Big Three 
company to build cars for America. It changed the entire trajectory for 
my family. I shared that same pride when I was hired in, too.

    But throughout my 29 years as a UAW member, I've seen drastic 
changes. I witnessed our working standards and conditions eroded at the 
hands of bad trade agreements designed to drive a race to the bottom. 
Many of the decisions were being made under the guise of ``helping'' 
the companies be more competitive. Code word for corporate greed.

    Workers got caught on the losing end of a ``one-sided class war.''

    This led to the Big Three closing or spinning off 65 plants in the 
past 20 years. In 2009, UAW members were unfairly villainized for all 
that ailed the Big Three. Our members, both active and retired, made 
massive sacrifices such as the suspension of COLA and job security 
language provisions, just to name a few. All these sacrifices bore by 
our members were made to help the Big Three stay afloat and remain 
``competitive,'' all to feed corporate greed.

    Despite that, and the plant closures that tore apart communities, 
and how our members' lives turned upside down, our members always 
delivered.

    With our recent success with the Big Three, our union just showed 
the world what's possible when workers unite to fight for more, fight 
against corporate greed. Workers win.

    But only a small percentage of working-class Americans have the 
protections afforded by collective bargaining. Rather the vast majority 
are treated as second-class citizens, employed at the will of 
employers. We want better for America--and so should you. You should 
want better for Americans.

    In the past 6 months, we have begun to turn the tide in that class 
war for the American worker.

    On September 14, the UAW launched our Stand Up Strike. This was a 
new strategy to take on corporate greed at Ford, General Motors, and 
Stellantis, Chrysler's parent company. It allowed us to integrate our 
members into a national campaign where worker strikes strategically 
grew and escalated over time, giving our union's bargaining teams 
maximum power to negotiate and win a record contract.

    For the first time in UAW's history, we struck at all three 
companies. And in less than 7 weeks on strike, we won.

    What started at three auto assembly plants grew to nearly 50,000 
autoworkers going on strike at a time of soaring corporate profits and 
falling real wages. We said record profits mean record contracts. And 
that's what we achieved.

    We won things in this contract that our industry hasn't seen in 15 
years or more. We won victories that will instantly--overnight--change 
the lives of thousands of families across this country. Over time, it 
will transform communities, adding thousands of jobs and massively 
boosting the purchasing power of working-class families.

    Never in our history have we negotiated the reopening of a plant. 
That all changed with this contract. Belvidere Assembly in Illinois was 
written off for dead when they laid off the remaining 1,300 workers. We 
not only got the company to reopen the assembly plant, but we also 
negotiated for a new battery plant. Both of these plants will add 
thousands of jobs to save the Belvidere community. That's what a union 
can achieve.

    There's far too much in our agreement to detail in a short 
testimony, but I want to highlight four major areas in which we fought 
and won. In each case, we addressed a core, existential issue for the 
entire working class.

    One, we raised wages dramatically for over a hundred thousand 
workers.

    Two, we took a major step toward ensuring a just transition to 
electric vehicles.

    Three, we improved the retirement security for hundreds of 
thousands of our members.

    Lastly, we secured jobs for our current employees and future 
members and bargained for language that allows us to strike these 
companies if they do not honor their commitments to the workers.

    In looking at the success of our contract, each gain is monumental, 
but it was only a first step. We won as big as we could, restored most 
of what had been taken away, in one contract, for only one workforce.

    What we won has already begun spilling over into the non-union auto 
industry. After we announced our tentative agreements at the Big Three, 
Toyota made an announcement of their own. As reported by Labor Notes, 
Toyota suddenly made the decision to shorten the progression to top 
wage for their workers and to give their employees a 9-percent raise.

    Over the weekend, Honda announced they had reduced their 
progression to top pay to 3 years and gave an 11 percent raise--the 
exact same first-year amount raise the UAW won at the Big Three.

    We call it the UAW bump: that stands for ``U. Are. Welcome.''

    Every one of these workers is welcome in our union, to receive the 
full benefit of membership and working standards generations of UAW 
members have fought for and won. Already, thousands of these workers 
are reaching out and signing union cards.

    We know these non-union companies are doing this because they're 
scared. They're scared that their workers will see that a better life 
is possible once they organize into a union. And these companies are 
trying to head that off.

    For decades, non-union auto companies have used fear, uncertainty, 
and division to break union drives in our industry. I'm here to promise 
you that those days are over.

    The American public overwhelmingly supported our fight against 
corporate greed at the Big Three. That is because the American public 
is fed up with an economy that works to the benefit of the billionaire 
class, not the working class. The American public sees their employers 
making out like bandits while workers are continuing to fall further 
behind.

    The working class in this country is fed up and will not fall for 
the union-busting playbook of threatening to close plants, firing union 
activists, and pitting workers against each other.

    We are organizing like hell to help thousands of autoworkers in 
this country, primarily in the South, to win their union and raise the 
living standards for the working-class.

    The UAW just went on strike like we've never gone on strike before. 
Now we are going to organize like we've never organized before, because 
our strike has shown the Nissan worker in Alabama, and the Volkswagen 
worker in Tennessee, and the Toyota worker in Kentucky, and the Tesla 
worker in California that when union members win, the entire working-
class wins.

    Still, it is not enough for us to just win stronger contracts 
across the auto industry.

    We have no interest in being a private welfare state.

    Now, the working class needs this Committee, and the entire 
Congress to step up. You all have an essential role to play. Not only 
in supporting our fights and other fights like ours. But to finish the 
job for economic and social justice for the entire working class.

    We want the entire working class to organize, to bring dignity to 
their work, enjoy the fruits of unionism, and to have a voice on and 
off the job.

    For that, we need the muscle of the Federal Government. Not just as 
allies cheering from the sidelines. We need a pro-worker Congress 
guided by a vision of liberty and justice for all. Elected leaders that 
understand that economic justice is a national security risk for all of 
us if people don't have it, feel it. This is a fight worth fighting 
for. We must bring that fight into the workplace, as well as in the 
streets. But also, in the halls of power and the chambers of the US 
Senate.

    The UAW won wage increases ranging from 33 to 250 percent over the 
life of this 4.5 year contract for our members. But the working class 
as a whole is suffering from horrifying income and wealth inequality. 
If the Federal Government is interested in addressing the economic 
crisis of the working class, they have to follow the UAW's lead and 
help make employers raise wages and benefits for workers everywhere.

    We won electric vehicle and battery plants under our national 
agreements, maintaining our standards in the new auto industry. We were 
told it was impossible, even illegal. We were told the green economy 
had to be a race to the bottom, and there was nothing anyone could do 
about it. But UAW members rejected that false choice, that it can only 
be either green auto jobs or good auto jobs. The UAW just proved that 
it can and must be both. But if the Federal Government is interested in 
addressing the economic impact of a green transition, they have to 
follow the UAW's lead and ensure a just transition for workers 
everywhere.

    We also won, for the first time in over 15 years, meaningful gains 
in retirement security for all our Big Three members and retirees. And 
yet one of the most harmful and divisive tiers in our union remains: 
those hired after the Great Recession still do not have a pension or 
post-retirement healthcare. If the Federal Government is interested in 
addressing the economic evil of retirement insecurity, they have to 
follow the UAW's lead and guarantee a secure retirement for workers 
everywhere.

    These three crises--income inequality, the transition to a green 
economy, and retirement insecurity--are all linked. They are the fight 
for our future. What kind of economy will we live in? What kind of 
planet will we live on? And what kinds of lives will we lead?

    Walter Reuther, the great UAW leader of the 20th century, spoke of 
our union as the American vanguard:

        We don't mind leading.

        We don't mind being the first to take action.

        We don't mind striking for social and economic justice.

        It is the duty and the privilege of the UAW to lead.

        But we need reinforcements.

    If this Committee wishes to live up to its name, the HELP 
Committee, it is time to help the cause of economic and social justice 
in this country by bringing the victories union autoworkers just won, 
and those we have yet to win, to the entire working class.

    Thank you for having me today and allowing me to testify on behalf 
of the great members of the United Auto Workers Union.
                                 ______
                                 
    The Chair. Well, thank you very much, Mr. Fain. Our next 
witness is Sean O'Brien, the General President of the 
International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

    Mr. O'Brien is a fourth generation Teamster and got his 
start with Teamsters Local 25 in Charlestown, Massachusetts, as 
a heavy equipment driver at the age of 18. Mr. O'Brien, thanks 
very much for being with us.

       STATEMENT OF SEAN M. O'BRIEN, GENERAL PRESIDENT, 
          INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, WASH- 
          INGTON, DC

    Mr. O'Brien. Thank you very much, Chairman Sanders. Ranking 
Member, Dr. Cassidy, Committee Members.

    Thank you for inviting me to testify today about how unions 
are improving the lives of American working families. I am Sean 
O'Brien, General President, International Brotherhood of 
Teamsters. Let me start with a simple fact, workers who belong 
to a union earn better wages and benefits than workers who 
aren't union members.

    According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average 
union worker makes 18 percent more than their nonunion 
counterparts. Early this year, the Teamsters negotiated the 
largest private sector collective bargaining agreement in North 
America at UPS, United Parcel Service.

    More than 340,000 UPS teams have shown the world the 
positive difference belonging to a union makes for working 
people. The Teamsters' national contract with UPS secured more 
for our members than any other single agreement in the 20 year 
history of our great union.

    This victory included historic wage increases for all full 
and part time workers, no forced overtime, air conditioning, 
and new package cars, heat shields, and ventilation ducts on 
existing vehicles.

    No more two tier wage systems, and equal footing for all 
workers, raises for part time workers in our new UPS contract 
to hire than all wage increases given to part timers in the 
last 40 years combined.

    For the first time ever, the Teamsters successfully clawed 
back concessions at UPS made in previous contracts. This 
historic new 5 year agreement is by far the best contract ever 
secured for American workers at UPS.

    Throughout our campaign, it was necessary to show the 
public what it looks like when real people get up in the 
morning and go to work at UPS. These are hard jobs. They wear 
people down. They are also essential jobs in every sense of the 
word. Today's world, all of us rely on parcel delivery more 
than we ever have before. This country does not move without 
the hard work of Teamsters at UPS.

    This includes the package car drivers in the iconic brown 
trucks, the feeder drivers making long haul deliveries, the 
women and men getting up at 3.00 a.m. to work those warehouses. 
The unsung heroes the public never sees who move those boxes to 
load and unload those trucks.

    None of us are getting our packages without those dedicated 
part time workers. The more we told the story of UPS Teamsters, 
the stronger our fight got against this giant corporation. 
Every poll showed the public was on the side of the workers. 
The American people will always appreciate and respect hard 
work.

    Our members knew that and felt it every week of our battle 
for a new agreement. When it was said and done, UPS Teamsters 
won a $30 billion contract. We did it without being forced to 
go on strike by running a fierce practice picket campaign 
nationwide and by fighting harder than ever before at the 
bargaining table.

    This is a contract that sets the tone of what is happening 
in the labor movement today. Interest in unions is at an all-
time high and for good reasons. Just look at a unionized 
company like UPS and compare it to nonunion Amazon who do the 
same job every single day. Both companies have tough, stressful 
working environments, but workers in Amazon are twice as likely 
to be injured on the job.

    Workers in Amazon are under constant surveillance and fear 
of losing their jobs. A regular package car driver at UPS makes 
twice as much as an Amazon delivery driver and under the 
independent contractor model. Under the Teamsters' new 
agreement, UPS workers are the highest paid delivery drivers in 
America.

    Full time UPS Teamsters receive more than $40 per hour and 
benefits compared to Amazon drivers who receive a benefit 
package of less than $10 per hour. Part time UPS receive four 
times more in hourly benefits than current warehouse workers at 
Amazon.

    Thanks to a Teamster contract, there is no comparing UPS 
Teamsters and nonunion Amazon employees and how they are 
compensated or treated. For a company as rich as Amazon to 
treat their employees so badly is a disgrace.

    I want the Members of this Committee to ask themselves 
this, would you want your child to deliver packages for Amazon 
knowing the company's long track record of abusive mistreatment 
of workers? You cannot possibly answer this in the affirmative.

    Not one of you. When you go to work at UPS as a Teamster, 
you get the highest wages in the industry, you get a pension, 
you get real protections on the job, and you get a fully paid 
health care plan that is better than the one I have as a 
General President of the Teamsters. Where else are you seeing 
that across this U.S. economy?

    Virtually nowhere. This is why there were so many stories 
online about job searches online for UPS careers after we 
ratified this contract. This is why Amazon gave warehouse 
workers a raise while the Teamsters were winning our contract 
fight at UPS. I am sure my friend Sean Fain can say a word or 
two about the raises given out at Tesla and Toyota following 
his union's victories against the big three as well.

    There is no coincidence here. Union victories and contract 
wins don't just affect union members, they positively impact 
all working people in this country. As we speak, 5,000 
Teamsters nationwide are negotiating a new contract with 
Anheuser-Busch. Right now, we have more than 1,100 Teamsters 
standing up to DHL to bargain a first contract at the 
Cincinnati Northern Kentucky Airport.

    In a few months, more than 7,000 Teamsters in Hollywood 
will fight along IATSE to take on the big movie and TV studios. 
Just as the WGA and the SAG-AFTRA members were forced out on 
strike this year, we have our own battle brewing with the 
AMPTP.

    The fight to raise wages and improve the standard of living 
for American workers never ends. It is an uphill battle every 
day against giant corporations who want to pocket all the money 
or spend it on gaming our political system.

    America labor laws do nothing when employers refuse to 
negotiate a first contract after workers choose to join a 
union. This is one of the primary reasons why union membership 
continues to decline despite workers' interests and unions 
being higher than ever.

    American workers want unions. They have a right to join or 
form a union, but employers will try everything they can to 
deny that right to working people. When these same people have 
friends on Capitol Hill who help them get away with it, the 
potential for workers to get ahead in this country further 
disappears.

    If we want to make America a better country, we have to 
stop letting corporations destroy the middle class through 
their abuse and exploitation of workers. We have to advocate 
for workers and really fight for them. And it can't just be the 
Teamsters doing the heavy lifting. We need your help.

    We need our elected officials to do more and do what is 
right. In recent months, the Teamsters have been building 
greater bipartisan support across our Government to protect 
workers' interests.

    This includes Senators and representatives brave enough to 
put into writing their support for UPS Teamsters fighting for a 
just contract. Most recently, Republicans, Democrats in this 
chamber continue to stand up to back our efforts to rebuild 
good union frayed jobs in the wake of yellow's collapse. From 
Senator Josh Hawley, to Senator Roger Marshall, to Senator 
Elizabeth Warren, and Senator Bernie Sanders, the Teamsters are 
eager to build bipartisan coalitions where we can help working 
people. This is what it should be about.

    We have to put more money in workers' pockets. That is what 
the Teamsters just did at UPS. It is what unions are doing all 
over the country and American workers are paying attention. 
Thank you very much.

    [The prepared statement of Mr. O'Brien follows:]

                 prepared statement of sean m. o'brien 
                 
    Good morning, Chairman Senator Sanders, Ranking Member Dr. Cassidy, 
distinguished Members of the Committee. My name is Sean O'Brien. I 
serve as the General President of the International Brotherhood of 
Teamsters. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today.

    When I was last here, we discussed corporate America's 
longstanding, systematic, and often illegal attacks on working people 
who organize to form unions. Today, with the Teamsters having ratified 
the largest and most comprehensive private-sector collective bargaining 
agreement in North America at United Parcel Service (UPS), I am here to 
talk about how organized worker power and a union contract are the 
antidote to corporate greed.

    In August, rank-and-file members voted by an overwhelming 86.3 
percent to ratify the most lucrative contract in the history of the 
Teamsters at UPS. The agreement passed by the highest vote ever for a 
Teamsters contract at UPS. There is no larger union contract with a 
single employer than the UPS Teamsters National Master Agreement. This 
5-year contract protects and rewards more than 340,000 UPS Teamsters in 
the United States and Puerto Rico, raising wages for full-and part-time 
workers, creating more full-time jobs, and securing important workplace 
protections, including--for the first time--air conditioning in new 
package cars and heat shields and ventilation ducts in existing 
vehicles, which will protect the safety and health of our members.

    When I was last here, there was some confusion about pay rates for 
UPS feeder drivers. To be crystal clear, prior to passage of this new 
5-year contract, UPS feeder drivers, who are paid hourly, made $41.59 
per hour, with most making time-and-a-half paid at over 8 hours per 
day. At 2,080 hours (typical 40-hour work week x 52 weeks) that's 
$86,507 per year. When you add 10 hours of overtime per week (which is 
on the very low end) that puts the average Feeder Driver at around 
$119,000 per year. However, most Feeder Drivers work something closer 
to 18 to 20 hours of overtime per week, putting them at around $145,000 
per year. Mileage Drivers and Sleeper Teams make even more. On their 
own website, UPS asserted, pre-contract ratification that Feeder 
Drivers made an average of $162,000 per year even more. On their own 
website, UPS asserted, pre-contract ratification that Feeder Drivers 
made an average of $162,000 per year. \1\ Now, they make more.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\  https://about.ups.com/sg/en/our-company/great-employer.html 
See Article 53 and note addition of $1.15/hr COLA increase https://
teamster.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/ups18atlanticareasupp.pdf.

    Highlights of the 2023-2028 UPS Teamsters National Master Agreement 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
include:

          Historic wage increases. Existing full-and part-time 
        UPS Teamsters received no less than $2.75 more per hour in 
        2023. Over the length of the contract, wage increases will 
        total at least $7.50 per hour.

          Existing part-timers were raised up to no less than 
        $21 per hour immediately, and part-time seniority workers 
        earning more under a market rate adjustment still received all 
        new general wage increases.

          General wage increases for part-time workers are 
        double the amount obtained in the previous UPS Teamsters 
        contract--and existing part-time workers will receive a 48 
        percent average total wage increase over the next 5 years.

          Wage increases for full-timers will keep UPS 
        Teamsters the highest paid delivery drivers in the Nation, 
        improving their average top rate to $49 per hour.

          Current UPS Teamsters working part-time will receive 
        longevity wage increases of up to $1.50 per hour on top of new 
        hourly raises, compounding their earnings.

          New part-time hires at UPS start at $21 per hour and 
        will advance to $23 per hour.

          All UPS Teamster drivers classified as 22.4s were 
        reclassified immediately to Regular Package Car Drivers and 
        placed into seniority, ending the unfair two-tier wage system 
        at UPS.

          Safety and health protections, including vehicle air 
        conditioning and cargo ventilation. UPS will equip in-cab A/C 
        in all larger delivery vehicles, sprinter vans, and package 
        cars purchased after Jan. 1, 2024. All cars get two fans and 
        air induction vents in the cargo compartments.

          All UPS Teamsters now receive Martin Luther King Day 
        as a full holiday for the first time.

          No more forced overtime on Teamster drivers' days 
        off. Drivers will keep one of two workweek schedules and cannot 
        be forced into overtime on scheduled off-days.

          UPS Teamster part-timers will have priority to 
        perform all seasonal support work using their own vehicles with 
        a locked-in 8-hour guarantee. For the first time, seasonal work 
        will be contained to 5 weeks only from November-December.

          The creation of 7,500 new full-time Teamster jobs at 
        UPS and the fulfillment of 22,500 open positions, establishing 
        more opportunities through the life of the agreement for part-
        timers to transition to full-time work.

          More than 60 total changes and improvements to the 
        National Master Agreement--more than any other time in 
        Teamsters history--and zero concessions from the rank-and-file.

    Teamsters at UPS fought for these gains. The presence of a union 
contract levels the playing field and legally requires an employer to 
bargain, but it does not mean that the employer will be fair. Union or 
nonunion, there's no such thing as a benevolent employer.

    Throughout the bargaining process, corporate interest groups and 
their representatives used all the expected fear tactics to try to 
convince the public and government officials at all levels that paying 
UPS Teamsters their fair share would harm the economy, consumers, and 
small businesses. As usual, some in Congress took the bait, but none of 
that fearmongering was accurate.

    The truth is that rank-and-file UPS Teamsters sacrificed everything 
to get this country through a pandemic and enabled UPS to reap record-
setting profits. \2\ Teamsters at UPS demanded their fair share of 
those profits, which they earned through their hard work. The more we 
told the story of UPS Teamsters, the stronger our fight got against 
this giant corporation. Every poll showed the public was on the side of 
our members because the American people will always appreciate and 
respect hard work. \3\ The Teamsters achieved this historic contract by 
engaging our members, running a fierce practice picket campaign 
nationwide, and by fighting harder than ever before at the bargaining 
table. Our members posed a credible strike threat and UPS knew we were 
serious about getting the best contract possible. We got UPS to put $30 
billion in new money on the table, winning big wage increases and 
protections, all without our members having to go on strike.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \2\  https://www.ajc.com/news/business/ups-profit-soared-above-10b-
in-21-sees-revenue-topping-100b-in-22/2H5Q5CCQ5RBFLKRDLGYLTTZNCM/.
    \3\  https://aflcio.org/sites/default/files/2023-08/GBAO%20AFL-
CIO%20Labor%20Day%20Poll%20Memo.pdf

    The Teamsters continue the fight at other employers. Right now, 
5,000 Teamsters nationwide are negotiating a contract with Anheuser-
Busch. More than 1,100 Teamsters are standing up to DHL to bargain a 
first contract at the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky airport. In just a 
few months, more than 7,000 Teamsters in Hollywood will join IATSE in 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
taking on the big movie and TV studios.

    The fight on behalf of American workers never ends. Corporate 
America and its C-suite leadership will never willingly relinquish 
their power or wealth. As I outlined in detail before this Committee in 
March, our broken labor law, tax law, antitrust law, and corporate 
bankruptcy law work to the favor of corporations and the wealthy. Weak 
laws with gaping loopholes only favor the consolidation of corporate 
wealth, not the interests of American workers.

    In 2019, families in the top 10 percent held 72 percent of total 
wealth, and families in the top 1 percent held more than one-third; 
families in the bottom half held only 2 percent of total wealth. \4\ In 
October 2022, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) published a report on 
the productivity pay gap. The report showed that, unlike prior decades, 
from 1979 to 2020, net productivity rose 61.8 percent, while the hourly 
pay of typical workers increased only 17.5 percent over four decades. 
The wealth generated by increased productivity isn't going to workers. 
Additional research by EPI concludes that compensation of top CEOs 
increased 1,460.2 percent from 1978 to 2021. Top CEO compensation grew 
roughly 37 percent faster than stock market growth during this period 
and far eclipsed growth in a typical worker's annual compensation. 
Increased wealth also went into higher profits like returns to 
shareholders. \5\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \4\  https://www.cbo.gov/publication/57598.
    \5\  https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/; https://
www.epi.org/publication/ceo-pay-in-2021/.

    The extreme consolidation of wealth and power in this country is a 
crisis that deserves Congress' immediate and full attention, but 
working Americans are not waiting to be saved by their elected 
officials. Workers are taking action to improve their standard of 
living, stay safe, and have a voice at work by organizing and building 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
worker power.

    Union support is at an all-time high. A Gallup survey in August 
2022 found 71 percent of Americans approve of unions. \6\ During the 
first 9 months of Fiscal Year 2022, union representation petitions 
filed at the NLRB increased 58 percent. \7\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \6\  https://news.gallup.com/poll/398303/approval-labor-unions-
highest-point-1965.aspx.
    \7\  https://www.nlrb.gov/news-outreach/news-story/correction-
first-three-quarters-union-election-petitions-up-58-exceeding.

    A recent analysis of the effects of union membership on wealth 
shows that being part of a union is associated with greater wealth for 
working-class families and especially working-class families of color. 
\8\ Because of this effect, unions are a crucial means for building 
wealth among the working class and reducing racial wealth gaps for 
workers without 4-year college degrees. The key findings of this report 
include:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \8\  https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/democrats/2022/6/
jec-ed-and-labor-release-new-report-on-economic-benefits-of-unions.

          Working-class union households hold nearly four times 
        as much median wealth ($201,240) as the typical working-class 
        nonunion household ($52,221), suggesting that membership vastly 
        increases wealth for working-class families. \9\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \9\  https://www.americanprogress.org/article/unions-build-wealth-
for-the-american-working-class/.

          Union membership helps close the wealth gap between 
        working-class and college-educated households. While the median 
        wealth of working-class nonunion households is just 17 percent 
        that of college-educated nonunion households, the median wealth 
        of working-class union households is 67 percent that of 
        college-educated nonunion households. \10\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \10\  https://www.americanprogress.org/article/unions-build-wealth-
for-the-american-working-class/.

    An August 2023 report from the U.S. Department of the Treasury 
found that the positive effects of unions are not limited to union 
workers. The report concluded that nonunionized firms in competition 
with unionized workplaces may choose to raise wages, change hiring 
practices, or improve their workplace environment to attract workers. 
Unions can also affect workplace norms by lobbying for workplace safety 
improvements or advocating for changes in minimum wage laws. The 
empirical evidence finds that these positive spillovers exist. Each 1 
percentage point increase in private-sector union membership rates 
translates to about a 0.3 percent increase in nonunion wages. These 
estimates are larger for workers without a college degree, the majority 
of America's workforce. \11\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \11\  https://home.treasury.gov/news/featured-stories/labor-unions-
and-the-us-economy.

    Unions may also produce benefits for communities that extend beyond 
individual workers and employers by enhancing social capital and civic 
engagement. Union members vote 12 percentage points more often than 
nonunion workers, and nonunion workers in union households vote 3 
percentage points more often than individuals in nonunion households. 
In addition, union members are more likely to donate to charity, attend 
community meetings, participate in a neighborhood project, and 
volunteer for an organization. \12\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \12\  https://home.treasury.gov/news/featured-stories/labor-unions-
and-the-us-economy.

    As Chair Sanders wrote in The Nation, for much of the 20th century 
there was a shared understanding of the role unions needed to play, not 
just in improving the circumstances of workers but in providing a 
counterbalance to powerful business interests. The corporate world 
understands that strong unions can put a check on the kinds of greed, 
exploitation, and unilateral decision-making that exist in nonunion 
companies. \13\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \13\  https://www.thenation.com/article/society/bernie-sanders-
angry-about-capitalism/.

    It's simple. As a country, we can choose to collectively encourage 
the growth of good union jobs that pay family sustaining wages and 
allow those good jobs to set the standard for competition within an 
industry or we can continue to allow companies like Amazon to dominate 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
and drive a race to the bottom for working people.

    Teamsters changed the game at UPS, battling it out day and night to 
make sure our members won an agreement that pays strong wages, rewards 
their labor, and doesn't require a single concession. This new contract 
sets a new standard in the labor movement and raises the bar for all 
workers.

    Prior to ratification of the Teamsters' new contract, UPS drivers 
averaged $39 per hour in wages and $36 per hour in benefits compared to 
Amazon drivers who averaged $21 per hour in wages and $9 per hour in 
benefits. Part-time workers at UPS averaged $22 per hour in wages and 
$24 per hour in benefits compared to Amazon part-time warehouse workers 
who averaged $18 per hour in wages and $7 per hour in benefits.

    When you go to work at UPS as a Teamster, you get the highest wages 
in the industry, you get a pension, you get real protections on the 
job, and you get a fully paid health care plan that's better than the 
one I have as General President of the Teamsters. These wages and 
benefits apply to all full-and part-time workers. Where else are you 
seeing that across the U.S. economy? Virtually nowhere. This is why 
there were so many stories about online job searches for UPS careers 
skyrocketing after news of our contract. It is why Amazon gave 
warehouse workers a raise while the Teamsters were in the middle of 
winning our contract fight at UPS and again for delivery drivers 
shortly after contract ratification. \14\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \14\  https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2023/aug/08/everyone-wants-
to-work-at-ups-after-union-scores-1/; https://www.reuters.com/business/
amazon-raises-wages-warehouse-workers-insider-2022-09-28/; https://
www.aboutamazon.com/news/transportation/amazon-invests-over840-million-
in-dsp-rates-and-new-driver-programs.

    Amazon knows what the union difference means for workers in the 
delivery and logistics industries. That's why the company does all that 
it can to obstruct worker power, beginning with union busting and 
intimidation tactics. Moreover, if Congress and state legislatures do 
not act to protect the rights of workers to unionize and to regulate 
the unchecked march toward automation, companies like Amazon will 
ultimately automate away human employees, turning these industries into 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
jobless industrial landscapes.

    According to filings with the Department of Labor (DOL), in a 
single year Amazon spent $4.3 million on consultants to prevent its 
employees from unionizing. \15\ Amazon's entire business model depends 
on worker exploitation and fosters worker turnover. The company uses 
anticompetitive business practices to increase its dominance and drive 
down labor standards within its core industries. To do this, the 
company relies on weak and outdated labor, occupational safety, and 
antitrust law, underfunded and understaffed enforcement agencies, and 
holes in regulatory jurisdiction. \16\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \15\  https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/02/business/amazon-union-
christian-smalls.html.
    \16\  https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/09/
ftc-sues-amazon-illegally-maintaining-monopoly-power.

    Last June, leaked documents showed that Amazon had a 150 percent 
turnover rate. The documents warned, ``If we continue business as 
usual, Amazon will deplete the available labor supply in the US network 
by 2024.'' \17\ According to a report by the Strategic Organizing 
Center (SOC), Amazon's punishing pace-of-work results in worker injury 
rates that are nearly twice as high as that of all other non-Amazon 
warehouse facilities. \18\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \17\  https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jun/22/amazon-
workers-shortage-leaked-memo-warehouse.
    \18\  https://thesoc.org/news/report-shows-amazon-workers-injured-
more-than-twice-industry-average/; https://thesoc.org/what-we-do/the-
injury-machine-how-amazons-production-system-hurts-workers/.

    Amazon's Delivery Service Partner (DSP) program is a textbook 
example of how Amazon utilizes weaknesses in labor, unfair competition, 
and antitrust law to maintain its dominance, obstruct worker power, and 
drive down labor standards. Amazon has set up more than 2,000 nominally 
independent DSPs in the U.S. to deliver its packages, employing an 
estimated 115,000 drivers. Amazon dictates the order of deliveries, the 
route, the progress, and speed of each delivery. DSP employees and 
their trucks or vans are branded with the Amazon logo. Amazon monitors 
DSP drivers though an app called Mentor that is installed on navigation 
devices that DSP drivers must use. Amazon dictates prices for each 
delivery and limits the size of DSPs by capping the number of routes it 
assigns to each. Amazon terminates DSPs who attempt to reduce their 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
drivers' grueling workload or increase their pay.

    DSPs and their workers cannot fight back. When they do, Amazon can 
simply terminate their contracts and shift the work to other DSPs. 
Keeping each DSP thinly capitalized and under tight control allows 
Amazon to prevent DSPs from challenging Amazon's power over them. For 
example, Amazon has used several adaptations of its DSP contract to 
impose an exclusive dealings arrangement on DSPs. One of the most 
recent versions required DSPs to accept delivery request ``Monday 
through Sunday, 365 days a year, at times and days designated by 
Amazon.'' By preventing DSPs from working with competitors and growing 
their ``so-called'' independent operations, Amazon ensures it remains 
the only source of income for DSPs, and that they never build the power 
necessary to confront Amazon on their own. \19\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \19\  https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/22/tech/amazon-dsp-portland/
index.html; https://www.vice.com/en/article/wxdbnw/i-had-nothing-to-my-
name-amazon-delivery-companies-are-being-crushed-by-debt.

    Despite this extensive control and branding by Amazon, Amazon 
asserts that DSPs are independent businesses and disclaims corporate 
responsibility for the DSPs and employment responsibility for DSP 
drivers. Yet, in numerous instances, Federal wage and hour lawsuits 
filed by drivers against DSPs name Amazon as a co-defendant. In fact, 
Amazon has settled multiple cases in which it was a named defendant, 
accepting no liability under the terms of the settlement agreements. 
Thus, the company has avoided lengthy litigation that could ultimately 
determine Amazon to be a joint employer. By avoiding this 
classification, it enjoys all the control associated with having its 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
own in-house fleet without concern for unionization efforts.

    With its dominance, Amazon uses the DSP arrangement to eradicate 
labor market competition by dictating standards to its supposed 
competitors, while also making them rely on Amazon for their business. 
Amazon is also replicating the DSP model in the tractor-trailer middle-
mile segment with its Amazon Freight Partners. Amazon's freight 
operations serve both inter-facility movement of Amazon products and 
third-party shippers. These small trucking operations are often poorly 
vetted, and a recent Wall Street Journal investigation showed that 
Amazon routinely hired companies with poor safety track records. \20\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \20\  Christopher Weaver, ``Amazon Routinely Hired Dangerous 
Trucking Companies, With Deadly Consequences,'' Wall Street Journal, 
Sept. 22, 2022.; https://thesoc.org/what-we-do/the-worst-mile-
production-pressure-and-the-injury-crisis-in-amazons-delivery-system/.

    Unjust barriers to union representation and collective bargaining 
rights permeate Federal labor law. For decades, FedEx has exploited 
what is sometimes referred to as the ``express carrier loophole,'' 
placing tens of thousands of unequivocally non-airline employees, 
including truck drivers and package handlers, under the Railway Labor 
Act (RLA), instead of the NLRA. \21\ Because the RLA requires an ``all 
or nothing'' approach to craft bargaining, this means that upwards of 
100,000 employees would have to be organized simultaneously into a 
single unit, as opposed to the NLRA, which allows location by location 
organizing, as would be found at any FedEx competitor. This special 
carveout status, which FedEx has spent millions of dollars lobbying to 
preserve, is not rooted in well-reasoned labor law, but in a desire to 
obstruct worker organizing.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \21\  https://www.politico.com/story/2010/06/ups-fedex-worlds-
apart-on-labor-law-039079.

    There is a misconception that unions stifle economic growth and 
entrepreneurship. There is a fear in these halls about speaking ill of 
anyone deemed a ``job creator.'' When our elected leaders fail to 
outlaw abusive business models, they're not protecting 
entrepreneurship--they're enabling corporate greed and encouraging the 
ultimate creation of a workplace where human beings are no longer 
relevant. That's why the Teamsters have been publicly critical of 
California Gov. Gavin Newsom for recently vetoing legislation that 
would have mandated human operators inside heavy autonomous vehicles. 
\22\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \22\  https://teamster.org/2023/09/teamsters-labor-allies-demand-
gov-newsom-sign-ab-316/.

    American workers want unions. They have a right to join or form a 
union. But as we witness every day, employers will try everything they 
can to deny that right to working people. When corporate executives 
have friends on Capitol Hill who help them get away with it, the 
potential for workers to get ahead in this country further disappears. 
If we want to make America a better country, we have to stop letting 
corporations destroy the middle class through their abuse and 
exploitation of workers. We have to advocate for workers. We have to 
really fight for them. And it can't just be the Teamsters doing the 
heavy lifting. We need your help. We need our elected officials to do 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
more, and to do what's right.

    We have got to put more money into workers' pockets. That's what 
the Teamsters just did at UPS. It's what unions are doing all over the 
country. And American workers are paying attention.

    There is much that Congress can do right now to support worker 
power and union growth as the antidote to corporate greed. Here are a 
few of the Teamsters Union's Federal priorities:

    Stand with Workers Fighting for Their Fair Share of Corporate 
Wealth: Yes, quite literally stand with them on the picket line, but 
also figuratively through your public statements. In July, 173 
bipartisan Members in the House and 29 Senators, many on this 
Committee, signed a letter stating support for UPS Teamsters' statutory 
and constitutional rights to withhold their labor and initiate and 
participate in a strike. While we deeply appreciate that support, that 
letter should not have been as newsworthy and notable as it was. 
Members of Congress must be actively and publicly engaged in 
confronting corporate greed in your home states and districts.

    End Exploitative Fissured Business Models that Encourage a 
Competitive Race to the Bottom on Labor Standards: Specifically, 
enforce joint employment laws and strengthen antitrust laws to end 
practices like Amazon's DSP program. Amazon is avoiding liability for 
and responsibility to its employees under its program, while still 
retaining control over nearly every aspect of their work. Amazon's DSP 
program is a textbook example of how the corporate giant utilizes 
weaknesses in both labor and antitrust law to maintain its dominance, 
obstruct worker power, and drive down labor standards. By preventing 
DSPs from working with competitors and growing their ``so-called'' 
independent operations, Amazon ensures it remains the only source of 
income for DSPs, and that these workers never build the power necessary 
to confront Amazon on their own. \23\ The Teamsters Union strongly 
supports the recent NLRA joint employer rule and opposes all efforts to 
weaken or overturn that rule.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \23\  https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/22/tech/amazon-dsp-portland/
index.html; https://www.vice.com/en/article/wxdbnw/i-had-nothing-to-my-
name-amazon-delivery-companies-are-being-crushed-by-debt.

    Rein in Excessive Executive Compensation and Tax Corporations 
Fairly: From 1978 to 2022, top CEO compensation shot up 1,209.2 percent 
compared with a 15.3 percent increase in a typical worker's 
compensation. In 2022, CEOs were paid 344 times as much as a typical 
worker, in contrast to 1965 when they were paid 21 times as much as a 
typical worker. \24\ The Federal tax code is rife with inequity and 
loopholes that favor corporations and the ultra-wealthy. For example, 
an existing tax loophole allows corporations to deduct from their 
taxable income any amount paid to CEOs and their executives, as long as 
the pay is ``performance based.'' This means that the more they pay 
their executives, the less they pay in Federal taxes. Closing the CEO 
pay loophole would save taxpayers $50 billion over 10 years, according 
to the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation. We should pass 
legislation like S. 3155/H.R. 324 The Stop Subsidizing Multimillion 
Dollar Corporate Bonuses Act.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \24\  https://www.epi.org/publication/ceo-pay-in-2022/#full-report.

    Address Inequity in Corporate Bankruptcy Statute: Corporations and 
Wall Street have a long history of using bankruptcy to deprive 
employees and retirees of their hard-fought earnings and retirement 
benefits. In corporate bankruptcies, worker claims for compensation and 
benefits are often denied while executives' claims are given 
preferential treatment. We need to reform corporate bankruptcy laws 
that favor the wealthy and well connected over working people. The 
Teamsters Union urges Congress to pass the Prioritizing Employees and 
Retirees in Bankruptcy Act, or similar legislation that dramatically 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
improves recoveries for active employees and retirees.

    Deny Federal Contracts to Union Busting Companies: Full Stop.

    Pass the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. The PRO Act 
would address weaknesses and close loopholes in Federal labor law that 
make it easier for corporations to obstruct worker power. The bill 
would impose meaningful penalties on employers who violate the NLRA; 
ban captive audience meetings; expedite first contract negotiations; 
and protect the right to strike.

    Fully Fund the NLRB and OSHA. The recent surge in collective worker 
action means more work for the NLRB and OSHA. Both agencies have been 
starved for resources for too long. We can pass model legislation, but 
it means little without meaningful enforcement. To further combat 
Amazon's exploitative business model, we should pass legislation at the 
Federal level like the state level Warehouse Worker Protection Act. 
This bill addresses grueling and arbitrary productivity quotas which 
directly contribute to worker injury and turnover in Amazon warehouses. 
\25\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \25\  https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/03/new-york-passes-bill-
targeting-amazon-warehouse-productivity-quotas.html.

    Modernize Antitrust Laws and Address the Impact of Excessive 
Concentration and Anti-competitive Action on Labor Markets: The 
Teamsters will continue to support robust antitrust enforcement and 
reform. Our agenda is defined by three objectives: (1) curtailing 
concentrations of corporate power that harm workers; (2) attacking 
unfair and abusive business models and practices that threaten workers; 
and (3) empowering working people to engage in collective action 
against corporate criminals who seek to deny their fundamental right to 
organize. Congress can take a first step in advancing this agenda by 
passing Senator Klobuchar and Grassley's American Innovation and Choice 
Online Act. This legislation is the tip of the spear of a broader pro-
worker antitrust agenda and would stop predatory Big Tech platforms 
like Amazon from placing their own products and services at an unfair 
advantage over high-road employers in the warehousing and logistics 
sector. In addition to supporting greater oversight of the labor market 
impacts of companies like Amazon, we support enforcement and regulation 
efforts to treat pernicious practices such as use of vertical 
restraints and misclassification schemes as unfair methods of 
competition. The labor dispute exemption to antitrust law must also be 
respected, and if necessary, Congress should clarify for the courts 
what our labor and antitrust laws already state clearly: worker 
organizing efforts to improve labor conditions are exempt from 
antitrust scrutiny, in acknowledgement of workers' fundamental right to 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
organize.

    End Special Tax Treatment for Union Busting Activity: The No Tax 
Breaks for Union Busting Act would end the taxpayer subsidization of 
anti-union activity by corporations. The bill would classify business' 
interference in worker organization campaigns as political speech under 
the tax code and therefore not tax deductible.

    Enforce the DOL Rule on ESG Investment: Ensure that union workers 
can put their own pension money to work in their best interest.

    Close the Express Carrier Loophole: Pass the Package Delivery 
Parity Act and ensure that tens of thousands of misclassified non-
airline workers are appropriately covered by the NLRA.
                                 ______
                                 
                 [summary statement of sean m. o'brien] 
                 
    In August, rank-and-file members voted by an overwhelming 86.3 
percent to ratify the most lucrative contract in the history of the 
Teamsters at UPS. The agreement passed by the highest vote ever for a 
Teamsters contract at UPS. There is no larger union contract with a 
single employer than the UPS Teamsters National Master Agreement. This 
five-year contract protects and rewards more than 340,000 UPS Teamsters 
in the United States and Puerto Rico, raising wages for full-and part-
time workers, creating more full-time jobs, and securing important 
workplace protections, including--for the first time--air conditioning 
in new package cars and heat shields and ventilation ducts in existing 
vehicles, which will protect the safety and health of our members.

    The extreme consolidation of wealth and power in this country is a 
crisis that deserves Congress' immediate and full attention, but 
working Americans are not waiting to be saved by their elected 
officials. Workers are taking action to improve their standard of 
living, stay safe, and have a voice at work by organizing and building 
worker power.

    A recent analysis of the effects of union membership on wealth 
shows that being part of a union is associated with greater wealth for 
working-class families and especially working-class families of color. 
\1\ Because of this effect, unions are a crucial means for building 
wealth among the working class and reducing racial wealth gaps for 
workers without 4-year college degrees. An August 2023 report from the 
U.S. Department of the Treasury found that the positive effects of 
unions are not limited to union workers. The report concluded that 
nonunionized firms in competition with unionized workplaces may choose 
to raise wages, change hiring practices, or improve their workplace 
environment to attract workers. . . . The empirical evidence finds that 
these positive spillovers exist. Each 1 percentage point increase in 
private-sector union membership rates translates to about a 0.3 percent 
increase in nonunion wages.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\  https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/democrats/2022/6/
jec-ed-and-labor-release-new-report-on-economic-benefits-of-unions.

    For much of the 20th century there was a shared understanding of 
the role unions needed to play, not just in improving the circumstances 
of workers but in providing a counterbalance to powerful business 
interests. The corporate world understands that strong unions can put a 
check on the kinds of greed, exploitation, and unilateral decision-
making that exist in nonunion companies. \2\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \2\  https://www.thenation.com/article/society/bernie-sanders-
angry-about-capitalism/.

    It's simple. As a country, we can choose to collectively encourage 
the growth of good union jobs that pay family sustaining wages and 
allow those good jobs to set the standard for competition within an 
industry or we can continue to allow companies like Amazon to dominate 
and drive a race to the bottom for working people.
                                 ______
                                 
    The Chair. Thank you very much. Our next witness is Sara 
Nelson, the International President of the Association of 
Flight Attendants-Communication Workers of America.

    Ms. Nelson started as a Flight Attendant at United Airlines 
in 1996. She has been serving as the International President of 
CWA since 2014. Ms. Nelson, thank you very much for being with 
us.

      STATEMENT OF SARA NELSON, INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT,  
         ASSOCIATION OF FLIGHT ATTENDANTS-COMMUNICATION  
         WORKERS OF AMERICA, WASHINGTON, DC 

    Ms. Nelson. Thank you, Chairman Sanders, Dr. Cassidy, and 
Members of the full Committee for the opportunity to testify 
here today, and especially to get some time with my union 
brothers, Shawn and Sean.

    I am a 27 year union flight attendant and President of the 
Association of Flight Attendants, CWA, representing flight 
attendants at 20 airlines alongside our sister union, the 
Association of Professional Flight Attendants.

    We represent 80,000 flight attendants in total. We work 
closely with our partner union, CWA, and the millions of 
transportation workers and union members who are the backbone 
of our economy. Amy King, Michael Tarrou, Amy Jarrett, Robert 
Fangman, Kathryn LaBorie, Al Marchand, Alicia Titus, Victor 
Saracini, Michael Horrocks, Hazel Sanchez, Maryanne MacFarlane, 
this was the crew of United Airlines Flight 175.

    This flight is the one you can picture crashing into the 
south tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, 
because all cameras were trained on the site after American 
Flight 11 hit the North Tower 17 minutes earlier. But this 
wasn't just any flight attendant crew.

    These were my friends, my flying partners, and members of 
my union. In the 50 years before I was hired, my union fought 
through massive discrimination to make our jobs one that anyone 
with the heart of a flight attendant could do, and built up the 
career with a living wage, comprehensive health care, including 
specific needs for women, a pension, and safety in the cabin 
for our passengers too.

    But everything changed the moment my friends died. While we 
grieved and fought like hell to support half of our Boston base 
who lost their jobs nearly overnight, crisis capitalists were 
already plotting to break our union contracts and redefine the 
value of our jobs. We lost over 100,000 aviation jobs 
practically overnight.

    Bankruptcies cut our pay, our staffing shifted the cost of 
health care to us. And when $80 million would have saved our 
flight attendant pension plan, the court approved termination 
instead, while at the same time awarding $400 million to the 
top executives.

    There was no Government bailout, but aviation workers were 
forced to give $81 billion in concessions to save the airlines, 
much like the auto workers were forced to give massive 
concessions to save Ford, Chrysler, and GM.

    The airline industry was heavily union, but after Ronald 
Reagan fired the air traffic controllers in 1981 and even sent 
several to jail for the strike, corporate America knew it was 
open season on unions. I soon learned personally and painfully 
the reality that an injury to one is an injury to all.

    As union density declined to just 6 percent of the private 
sector workforce, our capitalist economy has unraveled the 
American dream, and we are fighting to get it back. In 2020, 
aviation unions were set to negotiate real improvements for the 
first time since 911, and we needed them to.

    The cuts we endured turned a generation of workers away 
from careers in aviation. But when the pandemic hit, we were 
not about to go backward again. We fought for and won the 
historic workers first relief program, the payroll support 
program.

    Even though we put constraints on executives with no stock 
buybacks and caps on executive compensation, well after the 
relief period, our plan saved our jobs, or airlines, and with 
the help of nearly every Senator on this Committee. And 
aviation was the only industry to not grow in inequality during 
the pandemic.

    We have also successfully stopped the airlines from 
announcing new stock buyback plans since the prohibition ended 
last year. They must fix the operation for the American public 
and the workers and negotiate union contracts before sending 
cash to Wall Street.

    There was one airline with the lowest union density that 
fought only during that time to keep out of the law the 
requirement that they could not spend any Federal dollars on 
union busting.

    Delta Airlines spent their time doing that and then took 
the taxpayers money and cut hours for workers as they were not 
supposed to do because there were no unions there to hold them 
accountable like we were at the other airlines.

    We have tiers in the airline industry to the regional 
airlines that do work for the major airlines. United, American, 
Delta, and Alaska are paid 45 percent less on average, working 
the same flights, doing 40 percent of the domestic lift in this 
country.

    We have to end those tiers. And we have an organizing 
campaign at the largest regional carrier right now, SkyWest 
Airlines. SkyWest has for a very long time tried to keep the 
wool over workers' eyes by saying that they already have a 
union, but it is an illegal company union.

    When Teresa Grange, nearly 25 year employee, was at SkyWest 
and honored, and Shane Price, 9 year employee, stood up and 
showed that this company union was a sham and that their voting 
system was a sham, they were fired for their union organizing. 
This Committee needs to have oversight over that and put a 
check on it.

    The laws we have today were eroded since they were first 
enacted and took shape. The oldest law, labor law, the Railway 
Labor Act, has been eroded. There has been no reduction in the 
right to strike and we routinely got contracts when the right 
to strike was enacted.

    There was a clear question before the companies and the 
union members in order to reach agreements rather than to go on 
strike. But the Administration has not allowed that release 
for--in two decades, with the exception of one time.

    That is why we are suffering now. Today, in contract 
bargaining, where American Airlines has not had a raise since 
2019, the flight attendants are asking for a 33 percent wage 
increase because to keep up with inflation, they need at least 
22 percent.

    If we are going to get ahead from where we were since 9-11, 
we have to have more than that. We need scheduling rules, and 
we need our time back. Our time is controlled by these 
companies, and it is--and the consumers are hurt by that, too.

    We are looking for scheduling rules and investments in the 
airlines so that we are not left out stranded. These are the 
things that we are negotiating for right now. American flight 
attendants voted 99.5 percent for a strike, and we will be 
asking for a release soon.

    United Airlines and Alaska Airlines is not far behind them. 
I have a question for this Committee and a message for the 
billionaires who want to bleed the working class dry to the 
billionaires. I say there is plenty for everyone.

    You can be fabulously wealthy, but if you continue to try 
to keep us poor, you will find that the working people are not 
going to take it anymore. To the Members of this Committee, to 
the elected leaders across the country and around the world, I 
ask you the question that working people have asked for 
generations, which side are you on?

    Thank you to Chairman Sanders and Dr. Cassidy for the 
opportunity to testify. Unions are necessary for a stable 
economy, our safety, our security, and our democracy. Nothing 
is more important for our Nation to succeed than unions, 
collective bargaining dialog between divergent groups, 
solutions to the existential threats that we face, and the 
strength and future of our world and nation.

    The Association of Flight Attendants, CWA is prepared to do 
our part, and I look forward to doing that with you and your 
questions. Thank you.

    [The prepared statement of Ms. Nelson follows:]

                   prepared statement of sara nelson 
                   
                              Introduction
    Thank you Chairman Sanders, Dr. Cassidy and Members of the full 
Committee, for convening this hearing to examine how unions are 
improving the lives of working families.

    My name is Sara Nelson. I am a twenty-seven year union flight 
attendant and president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, 
AFL-CIO (AFA), representing flight attendants at 20 airlines across the 
industry along with our sister union the Association of Professional 
Flight Attendants, 80,000 flight attendants in total. We also 
coordinate closely with our partner union the Communications Workers of 
America, and all of the transportation union affiliates of the 
Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO. 

         No Matter the Industry, the Worker Plight is the Same 
         
    It's an honor to testify beside my friends President O'Brien and 
President Fain, who both ran member-driven contract campaigns in recent 
months that are doing more to restore the American Dream than anything 
we've seen in decades. Flight Attendants and workers in every industry 
can relate to the demands of UPS and autoworkers, just as workers in 
every industry.

    Workers are forced to fight battles that labor won decades earlier: 
over workplace safety, an 8-hour day, vacation, sick leave, a living 
wage, health care and retirement security. For too long, politicians 
and courts have sided with corporations over labor, fundamentally and 
perniciously reshaping American law, life and liberty. As union density 
declined to just 6 percent of the private sector workforce, our 
capitalist economy has unraveled the American dream. The social 
contract that has been in place since the 1940's, offering the working 
class a good life, the means to enjoy life in off hours, and a secure 
retirement if only one member of the family spent 40 hours on the job.

    There are no red, blue, purple, green, or any other color states. 
Every state is a working class state. If we want a free society where 
everyone can thrive we need the kind of working class moral clarity 
with clear demands that came from the picket lines at UPS, the Big 
Three automakers, the writers, actors, healthcare workers, educators, 
hotel workers, grad students, grocery workers, mineworkers, 
farmworkers, confectionery workers, scientists, engineers, machinists, 
truck drivers, rail workers, tech workers, and aviation workers 
including Flight Attendants. America needs to support the rights of 
workers and the people do. More than ever before in our history the 
public understands this and finds common cause in fighting corporate 
greed and demanding shared prosperity and shared productivity as 
technology advances.

    More than a century ago, in 1914, the great labor leader Mother 
Jones traveled to Ludlow, Colorado, where mineworkers had gone on 
strike when the company refused demands we take for granted today, like 
an 8-hour work day, enforcement of labor law and fair compensation.

    The workers at the Ludlow mine were mostly immigrants, representing 
more than 30 nationalities, ethnicities and cultures. \1\ There were 24 
different languages spoken by the miners. In many cases, poverty and 
the cycle of exploitation in company towns forced young children into 
the mines. Coal barons ignored the state's safety laws, and the mines 
in Colorado were the most dangerous in the nation, \2\ with more than 
twice as many deaths per capita as the national average. These workers 
had their backs against the wall, and when the bosses refused their 
demands, the workers walked off.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\  https://history.denverlibrary.org/news/diversity-then-now-
ludlow-massacre-and-western-history.
    \2\  https://books.google.com/books'id=vaWiBwAAQBAJ.

    Before Mother Jones arrived, the private militia hired by the 
Colorado Fuel and Iron Company and the National Guard had opened fire 
on one of the camps. Reports vary, but at least 26 people were killed 
in the camps--including four women and 11 children who were suffocated 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
by fires.

    After that horrible massacre, Mother Jones gathered the miners 
together, and she said to them, ``Sure you lost, because they had 
bayonets and all you had was the Constitution. Any battle between the 
Constitution and bayonets, the bayonets will win every time. But you 
must fight. You must fight and lose, you must fight and win, but above 
all, you must fight!'' \3\ The Ludlow Massacre and the Colorado 
Coalfield War that followed were a turning point in American history.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \3\  https://labortribune.com/mine-workers-roberts-brings-mother-
jones-back-to-the-fight/

    In Washington, Congress convened a United States Commission on 
Industrial Relations (CIR) and conducted hearings. That commission's 
report helped pave the way for Congress to enshrine the 8-hour workday, 
a ban on child labor, and eventually the Wagner Act and the National 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Labor Relations Act.

    For decades, working people fought. We didn't win every fight, but 
we were winning. We won pay and benefits that afforded us time to live 
our lives and retire with dignity. Starting in the workplace, we built 
political power and helped open the road for Civil Rights, for LGBTQ+ 
rights, for environmental protections and so much more. America's 
greatest days of shared prosperity and social progress were built on 
the foundations laid by generations of workers who fought for their 
rights at work, and all of our rights in our Nation. And for decades, 
workers were winning.

    But Mother Jones also warned us ``The capitalists say there is no 
need of labor organizing but the fact that they themselves are 
continually organizing shows their real beliefs.''

    The tables fully turned when Ronald Reagan broke the PATCO strike 
and working people went into defense mode. Over the next 20 years, 
presidents and Congress gutted regulations that had protected workers 
and our Country from the rapacious greed of a few. They deregulated the 
telecom industry, the trucking industry, and yes the airline industry. 
They opened ``free trade'' that gave corporations the freedom to ship 
jobs overseas and abandon American workers.

    For nearly all of my adult life, the billionaires were increasing 
and amassing all the wealth--as a game of who can be the richest not 
who can contribute the most to society. They slowly chipped away at our 
union contracts, convincing workers that we had to give back pay, 
benefits and working conditions just to keep our jobs. They created 
two-tier wage systems and shell games of sub-contractors. And they 
assaulted our democracy, flooding elections with corporate money and 
gutting the institutions and laws that made it possible for everyday 
Americans to thrive.

    All of that happened because we failed to recognize the value of 
collective bargaining and the necessity of unions in our democracy and 
capitalist economy. After the violence workers suffered by company 
thugs while fighting to build up a society of shared prosperity, 
``labor peace'' appeared to be a preferable course. But that led to 
corruption and compromise that often left workers unable to tell the 
difference between the corporate c-suite and the union leadership. 
Capitalism does not consider the people; it only pushes for higher 
profits at any cost. The only check for the people is unions and today 
the public understands this better than ever. We are starved for 
leadership that speaks with clarity for the working person, which today 
includes every gender, race, culture, and creed.

    In Ludlow in 1914, as Rockefeller's militia fired machine guns from 
fortified positions at the cloth tents where miners and their families 
were trying to shelter, the conductor of a passing freight train 
stopped the cars to block the bullets. \4\ He gave the miners and their 
families a chance to flee to safety.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \4\  https://libcom.org/article/ludlow-massacre-1914-sam-lowry.

    That spirit of solidarity lives on in the union leaders beside me. 
For decades, Teamsters have negotiated their contracts with ``no scab'' 
clauses so their members can refuse to drive delivery trucks across a 
picket line. Decades after Ludlow, it was the United Mineworkers who 
provided vital funding to help the UAW win its first campaigns, \5\ and 
the contracts UAW negotiated over the years set the standard for all of 
labor. Today, everyone is a worker. As the president of the Flight 
Attendant union I am keenly aware of the gender pay gap associated with 
jobs designated as ``women's work,'' ``migrant work,'' or jobs often 
filled by workers of color. Solidarity, safety, and security, demands 
we value all work and command dignity for the contributions of every 
worker.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \5\  https://afsc.org/news/legacy-united-mine-workers-america.

    Our Country and our world face enormous dangers. But I have hope. 
For generations, workplace solidarity united workers across barriers of 
culture, language, belief and national origin. And in my lifetime, I 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
have never seen the pull to solidarity more strongly than I do today.

September 11 Taught Me the Dangers of Crisis Capitalism, and the Value 
                               of Unions

                                Amy King
                             Michael Tarrou
                               Amy Jarret
                             Robert Fangman
                            Kathryn LaBorie
                              Al Marchand
                              Alicia Titus

    This was the crew of United Airlines flight 175. You know this 
flight. It's the one you can picture crashing into the South Tower of 
the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, because all cameras were 
trained on the site after American flight 11 hit the North Tower 17 
minutes earlier. But this wasn't just any Flight Attendant crew--these 
were my friends, my flying partners, and members of my union. They were 
with pilot union members Captain Victor Saracini and First Officer 
Michael Horrocks. And the whole crew was so happy to have with them two 
Boston gate agents we adored. Marianne MacFarlane and Jesus Sanchez 
were using their flight benefits to take a well-deserved vacation, 
defined for them in their union contract.

    I had been a Boston based union Flight Attendant for 5 years. I 
used to joke affectionately that ``all gates lead to Jesus'' as he 
would see us off and welcome us home again. I had worked flight 175 
many times before, often with one of the two Amys; jokester and singer 
Michael; and Kathryn barely able to peek over the coordinator desk 
while on her tippy toes to reach the lead flight attendant paperwork. 
We had shared beers and ``Fenway franks'' at Red Sox games, day cruised 
on our annual union trip to Provincetown, dressed up and danced at our 
union holiday party, and celebrated Patriot's Day by gathering at Amy 
King's on Beacon Street to cheer on the Boston marathon runners. We had 
fought together through our union to get the airline to move us from a 
Los Angeles downtown layover hotel where there had been a rape, we 
protested and took a strike vote against a proposed merger with another 
airline and picketed as a part of a union campaign to get positions on 
the Boston-London flight we all wanted to work. We had just won Federal 
certification for our work as Flight Attendants, a ban on spraying 
poisonous pesticides in our aircraft cabin, EPA oversight of our 
onboard water, FDA inspection of our airplane food, as well as fines 
and Federal prison time for passengers who became violent or interfered 
with our work to keep everyone safe in the aircraft cabin.

    Five years earlier when I became a Flight Attendant I only 
considered it because my union had won an epic battle against the 
tobacco industry to ban smoking from our planes. My college friend 
called me from a sunny layover at Miami beach to describe the real 
benefits of the job--pay higher than what would have been my first year 
as a teacher, free and expansive healthcare with coverage that mattered 
to women, flexibility with my schedule, and a pension that I could take 
as early as age 50. She didn't say it was the product of decades of 
fighting discrimination and building up a strong union contract, but 
that contract and the legal and legislative battles my union had won 
were what made me drive to Chicago the following day to interview to 
become a Flight Attendant.

    I didn't know anything about unions when I got the job at United 
Airlines. After 6 weeks of training and 3 weeks working flights I 
couldn't wait to get that first paycheck. When it didn't come, I tried 
to get help from someone in the airport office, but the answer was, 
``we're sure you'll get it next time.'' Two and a half weeks later, on 
a diet of top ramen and plane food, rent was due and luckily so was the 
next payday. When the paycheck didn't hit my bank account again I was 
desperate for help, but the answers from the office were the same. I 
felt the tense anger in my chest and the hot tears welling up in my 
eyes. No one seemed to hear me or care. Then everything changed with a 
gentle hand on my shoulder. I turned around to see another Flight 
Attendant I didn't know. She asked me how to spell my name, handed me a 
personal check, and told me, ``first, you take care of yourself, and 
second, call our union!'' I did call our union and I had my paycheck 
the next day, but that was also the hook for my involvement. That's how 
I knew Robert, Al, and Alicia, who had all only been flying for 8 
months before getting the last-minute call to work flight 175 on 9/11. 
I signed up to do the new hire union training to make sure new flight 
attendants knew their rights on the job and who had their backs if 
something went wrong.

    Robert loved the career my union had built and told me he felt 
accepted and able to be who he truly was as a gay man for the first in 
his life, with benefits for his family no matter who he loved. Al took 
the job after more than two decades on the police force in New Mexico 
and was last seen by his wife Rebecca skipping down the terminal to 
work flight 175 after spending a romantic weekend with her on Cape Cod. 
The joy he felt for his second career was only possible because our 
union obliterated age and sex discrimination. Alicia was drawn to the 
job as an ambassador of peace, quickly beloved by the Flight Attendants 
throughout the base and fulfilled in the work of bringing people 
together, de-escalating conflict, and promoting what is also the 
strength of the union--solidarity among every gender, race, culture, 
generation, and creed.

    In the crisis room at the Logan Airport Hilton our union set up 
tracking of every stranded crew and worked to get them home, while 
providing grief counseling and wellness checks that saved lives from 
suicide. We won several extensions of unemployment benefits for the 
thousands who were furloughed and expanded assistance for mental health 
challenges. Our union fought for Federal security screening to stop 
airlines from relegating our security to the lowest bidder and forcing 
government agencies, airlines, and workers to ensure coordinated, 
redundant, and risk-based security was put in place. We fought for 
proper security training and tools on our planes, 100 percent screening 
of cargo, no knives allowed on our planes, and reinforced flight deck 
doors with secondary barriers. We planned memorial services and 
disaster relief for our friends' families. But while our union grieved, 
comforted, and reinforced our personal and national security, crisis 
capitalists were planning to redefine the value of our union jobs.

    We lost over 100,000 aviation jobs practically overnight. 
Bankruptcies cut our pay, our staffing, shifted the cost of healthcare 
to us, and when $80 million would have saved our Flight Attendant 
pension plan the court approved termination instead while at the same 
time awarding $400 million to the top executives. There was no 
government bailout--but aviation workers were forced to give $81 
billion in concessions to ``save'' the airlines, much like auto workers 
were forced to give massive concessions to save Ford, Chrysler, and GM. 
The airline industry was heavily union, but after Ronald Reagan fired 
the air traffic controllers in 1981 and even sent several to jail for 
the strike Corporate America knew it was open season on unions. The old 
union adage of ``an injury to one is an injury to all'' was replaced 
with a corporate narrative that you should feel lucky to have a job and 
solidarity was a song for suckers. The strike was made a dirty word and 
both unions and collective bargaining were under attack. Since union 
density has fallen to just 6 percent of the private sector, wages for 
the American worker have remained flat, while productivity has gone 
through the roof and straight to Wall Street.

    Our experience in aviation is no different than for workers across 
the economy. 

            Unions are Winning a Better Life for all Workers 
            
    Even at the height of the union movement in the late 1960's and 
early 1970's, only one third of Americans were members of a union. But 
when enough workers are unionized, or when our wins are big enough, we 
set the standard for entire industries.

    Within days of the UAW's tentative agreements with Ford, General 
Motors and Stellantis Group (the Big 3), Toyota announced that it will 
raise wages for workers in its US plants. Just last week, Honda 
announced raises across the board for US workers as well. Within an 
industry, if non-union firms want to attract and retain qualified 
workers, they must compete with the unionized workers' pay, benefits 
and working conditions. The more of us who are unionized, the more 
pressure all employers face.

    Unions invest in workers' fights, even when we don't directly stand 
to gain. Just as coal miners invested in auto workers decades ago, in 
recent years teachers, nurses and public employees represented by the 
American Federation of Teachers gave hundreds of thousands of dollars 
to help Amazon workers organize and bargain. It was unions that put 
boots on the ground and resources into the campaigns that have raised 
the minimum wage across cities and states for tens of millions of 
workers.

    I always tell people that a woman must join and run unions. That's 
because in our unions, we are equal. Whatever your gender, race, 
identity or religion, we all earn the same pay for the same job. We 
have a contract and representation to protect us from harassment and 
discrimination. Before any law protecting LGTBQ Americans in the 
workplace or extended same-sex partner benefits, union contracts did.

    Unions keep corporate greed in check, in ways that benefit workers 
and consumers alike. A new study \6\ from the Rady School of Management 
at the University of California San Diego found that stronger unions 
create a more stable economy. Companies where workers have a strong 
union make fewer risky bets and are less likely to take on dangerous 
debt, making them more resilient in downturns and reducing the risk of 
layoffs or full-scale collapses.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \6\  https://today.ucsd.edu/story/unions-push-companies-to-reduce-
risky-debt-help-safeguard-us-workers.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
          Workers First--No More Bogus Trickle Down ``Relief'' 
          
    I had seen and felt the harm of crisis and bankruptcy before. When 
COVID hit our union was not about to sit back and allow it to destroy 
lives again.

    During the pandemic, my union--alongside our Teamster siblings and 
the other aviation unions--fought for and won the historic workers' 
first relief program, the Payroll Support Program (PSP) originally part 
of the CARES Act. I would like to especially acknowledge Chairman 
Sanders' role in helping pass this legislation, along with many other 
Members of this Committee, including Dr. Cassidy who worked to extend 
the program that saved our jobs and our industry.

    Our Payroll Protection Program saved American aviation. The Federal 
Government provided grants to keep aviation workers on payroll during 
the greatest downturn our industry has ever seen.

    PSP was designed with a single purpose: to keep aviation workers--
passenger service agents, flight attendants, mechanics, caterers, 
pilots, dispatchers and all of the 2.1 million workers who make 
aviation possible--paid, connected to healthcare, out of the 
unemployment lines, and ready to lift the entire country.

    This program used efficient systems already in place through 
airline payrolls, keeping benefits and payroll taxes in place, and 
maintaining the basis for retirement security both through government 
programs and company benefits. We continued paying taxes that supported 
the jobs we all count on through state and local budgets, like 
sanitation, firefighters, mass transit, education, and emergency 
response. At a time of great uncertainty for the industry, aviation 
workers had the stability to continue spending into the economy and the 
confidence that they and their family members would have access to 
healthcare in the middle of the pandemic. Fundamentally, PSP allowed us 
to take care of ourselves so that our Country could focus on those who 
were sick or vulnerable, while also continuing to support the safety 
net programs we need well after this pandemic is over. It is well 
documented that the public received an outsized return on all its 
investments to help aviation recover from COVID. And, to keep the 
crisis capitalists from using bankruptcies and scarcity to further 
erode our jobs.

    The program was also a model for how Congress can condition its 
spending to ensure accountability. PSP funding is authorized 
exclusively to maintain the salaries, wages, and benefits of aviation 
workers. Corporate restrictions during the relief period and for years 
after included, no dividends, no stock buybacks, and unprecedented caps 
on executive compensation. It conditioned the carriers' receipt of 
Federal funds on making no involuntary furloughs or layoffs. 
Participating carriers also were required to maintain levels of 
scheduled service, critical to maintaining air travel to smaller 
communities. In the pandemic this was especially important to ensure 
well-functioning health care and pharmaceutical supply chains to serve 
small and remote communities across the country.

    PSP was an overwhelming success, responsible for saving hundreds of 
thousands of jobs across our industry, and maintaining critical 
spending in our communities, where every aviation job supports 3.55 
additional jobs, or 1 in 14 jobs in the country.

    Through PSP, our unions saved American aviation, and likely the 
economy. The airline executives could never have done this alone, and 
certainly didn't suggest the constraints on executive pay or stock 
buybacks that resulted in aviation being the only industry not to grow 
in inequality over the course of the pandemic. In the years leading up 
to the pandemic, the airlines had sunk their profits into Wall Street 
greed, issuing billions in stock buybacks to juice shareholder value 
(and enrich executives) rather than saving for a rainy day or investing 
in the airlines for consumers and workers alike.

    Without PSP, we would have seen hundreds of thousands of aviation 
workers furloughed. Many would have left the industry altogether. Just 
as we suffered for 20 years after 9/11, mothers and fathers would have 
told their children to stay away from aviation jobs. Aviation workers 
are required to undergo strict training, certification and background 
checks, including regular safety training required to stay current. If 
our industry had seen mass furloughs and departures, the process of 
rehiring, recertifying and retraining our entire industry would have 
put a years-long choke point on our economy. You may remember the chaos 
of the summer and fall of 2022, when a combination of weather, 
technology and staffing issues led to mass cancellations and delays. At 
that point, airlines were at roughly ninety-five percent of their pre-
pandemic staffing. Imagine what the industry would have looked like if 
instead of seven to 10 percent attrition we saw during the pandemic, we 
had seen layoffs of thirty percent or more.

    If you've taken a flight, received a package by airmail or enjoyed 
fresh foods shipped by air in the last 3 years, you can thank an 
aviation union for making sure that American aviation didn't collapse--
and for holding corporate greed in our industry in check in the 
process.

    The PSP is also an example of something else: when we work 
together, we can achieve things that were thought impossible. On March 
18, 2020, I walked into a room to pitch this plan to the CEOs of 
America's biggest airlines. Because we have a long history, and because 
of the unprecedented crisis, they were willing to hear me out. 
Together, we walked into Congress to pitch our plan. I can't tell you 
how many people told me it would never get done. Even members of my own 
team--people who poured their hearts into the effort--did not believe 
we could get something like this through Congress. But we did. Through 
tireless advocacy and teamwork, we secured the initial aid, protected 
it from efforts by then-Treasury Secretary Mnuchin to sabotage it, and 
even renewed it twice. Along the way, we secured the support of 
Democrats and Republicans. In fact, alongside champions in the 
Democratic Senate caucus, one of the critical supporters was Senator 
Roger Wicker.

    It's also instructive to look at the one thing we proposed that was 
left out of the program. The corporate boards understood that airlines 
are deeply unpopular, and that any hope of receiving grants that would 
keep the industry afloat would also require that they accept terms they 
didn't like. They agreed to stop stock buybacks. They agreed to halt 
dividend payments to shareholders. They agreed to cap executive 
compensation and bonuses. But going in, we also said they would have to 
agree to simply follow the law with neutrality in union organizing 
while utilizing the government grants. That was Delta Air Lines' red 
line. They were willing to give up their own bonuses and the gifts to 
Wall Street. But they would rather take the risk that the entire 
industry would collapse than agree to allow workers to organize without 
interference. And I will remind you, this is in an industry that is 
eighty percent unionized already.

    That tells you something important. The deepest fear of the 
ownership class isn't sharing a bit more of the wealth, although 
they're not fond of that either. Their true fear is giving up control 
over the working people whose labor creates all of the value in our 
economy.

    Despite the clear statutory language in the CARES Act requiring 
carriers who receive payroll grants to maintain pay levels and 
benefits, Delta Air Lines was the first out of the gate with cuts to 
hours and worker take home pay. The carrier made the decision to cut 
ground crew hours by as much as 40 percent without consulting with 
workers. Delta Air Lines Flight Attendants asked their management to 
commit to a minimum number of monthly hours equivalent to the amount 
delineated in the Flight Attendant contract of Delta's closest industry 
comparator, but Delta management refused to do so, making clear its 
plans to slash Flight Attendant hours and benefits below established 
industry minimum standards as well. Delta pushed three to four times as 
many flight attendants into early retirement and moved flight 
attendants to the kitchens and other jobs that didn't pay as much as 
the flight attendant jobs the program was intended to protect. Unions 
kept airlines honest during the relief period, but where unions didn't 
exist Delta didn't follow the rules or respect the contributions of 
taxpayers. Unions are needed to help enforce our Country's laws and 
investments. 

       No Stock Buybacks Before Contracts and Reliable Operations 
       
    The Payroll Support Program ban on airline company stock buybacks 
ended on September 30, 2022. Six weeks before that ban lifted the 
Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA), the Air Line Pilots 
Association, Int'l (ALPA), the Association of Professional Flight 
Attendants (APFA), the Communications Workers of America (CWA), 
International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW), 
the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), Transport Workers 
Union of America (TWU), and Service Employees International Union 
(SEIU), representing hundreds of thousands of aviation workers, 
launched a public campaign demanding that airlines pledge to stabilize 
the industry with reliable operations and good jobs before diverting 
any airline profits to Wall Street through stock buybacks.

    From 2014 through 2019, United, Southwest, American and Delta 
rewarded Wall Street with more than $39 billion in combined stock 
buybacks. That money that should have been invested in better passenger 
experiences, staffing, and good jobs. Early in the pandemic, aviation 
unions secured a historic relief package, the Payroll Support Program 
(PSP), to keep workers in their jobs with pay and benefits. It also 
barred airline executives from utilizing stock manipulation tricks 
through September 30, 2022.

    We explained, ``We paused the greed in aviation for a little while 
with legislative constraints tied to COVID relief. But the greed that 
ran rampant before COVID created a system that was already stretched 
thin with minimum staffing and high overtime hours. We can't allow 
executives to send one dime to Wall Street before they fix operational 
issues and conclude contract negotiations that will ensure pay and 
benefits keep and attract people to aviation jobs.''

    In just the first half of 2022, U.S. airlines canceled more flights 
than in all of 2021, disrupting travel for millions of passengers and 
creating high-stress conditions for aviation workers. Unions are 
calling for airlines to resolve the ongoing operational chaos by better 
aligning staffing and scheduling to meet demand and concluding delayed 
labor contract negotiations.

    Thus far, our demand for no stock buybacks has worked. It matters 
for workers and consumers alike. Anyone interested in supporting the 
campaign can learn more and sign the petition at nostockbuybacks.org. 

                         Start in the Workplace 
                         
    I always tell people, ``start in the workplace, and the politics 
will follow.'' When Mineworkers and Teamsters first organized, there 
were no friendly laws to protect them. Today, union busters pull 
workers into captive-audience meetings to issue thinly veiled threats 
or buy us off with pizza. As our union organizing campaign grows 
stronger at Delta Air Lines, the anti-union propaganda and heavy-handed 
pizza parties have shifted to steak dinners. When the Teamsters were 
founded in 1903, workers who tried to organize their workplaces were 
met with batons and bullets.

    The laws we have today--while eroded by Congress and the Court 
since first enacted--took shape because workers fought. We held up the 
mirror to America and forced Washington to see the untenable treatment 
of everyday people by the coal barons and the steel barons and the 
railroad barons. We marched and we fought and eventually Washington 
responded. The National Labor Relations Act was a compromise--it gave 
workers a legal framework to organize and bargain, because the 
alternative was more violent clashes with the bosses' goons, angry 
protests in the streets and a halt to energy and commerce across the 
country.

    But today, the labor laws of the Great Depression have been 
weakened almost beyond recognition. The National Labor Relations Board 
(NLRB) and National Mediation Board (NMB) have been so defunded that 
they simply cannot enforce the laws that remain effectively, and when 
they can take up a case the consequences are irrelevant to today's 
coffee barons and 2-day-shipping barons and starship barons.

    That's why Amazon feels no fear when they blatantly interfere with 
union elections in Bessemer, Alabama, or refuse to bargain in good 
faith with warehouse workers in Staten Island. It's why Howard Schultz 
closes down stores where workers have voted for a union, fires union 
organizers and illegally offers raises and benefits to non-union stores 
even with the national spotlight on his actions. It's why Elon Musk has 
repeatedly broken labor laws from the Tesla assembly floor in Fremont, 
California to the cubicles where workers are programming autopilot in 
Buffalo, New York.

    It's why Delta Air Lines makes no effort to hide its illegal union 
busting against the Flight Attendants, Ramp agents and mechanics who 
are fighting to organize their unions with the Association of Flight 
Attendants-CWA, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) and 
the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers 
(IAM).

    It's why the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers 
(AMPTP), United Parcel Service (UPS) and the Big 3 automakers didn't 
bother negotiating in good faith until strike deadlines had passed, and 
why corporate offices at Alaska, United and American Airlines aren't 
worried about dragging out contract negotiations for months or years 
beyond contract expiration.

    Without the support of strong legal consequences, the only way to 
make corporations accountable is through worker action. And that is 
what we are seeing today.

    The oldest labor law, the Railway Labor Act, was changed in 2012 to 
require a majority of physical card signers within a year in order to 
trigger a union election. And, administratively, administrations have 
eroded the right to strike by refusing to release workers from 
mediation when at an impasse with the corporations. There has been no 
change to the law that for more than 70 years provided workers with the 
ability to threaten or carry out the right to strike in order to come 
to an agreement with the airlines. But beginning in the late 1990's, 
negotiations shifted from an average of 18 months to more than 5 
years--delaying improvements and causing workers to fall further 
behind. There's been no change to the law, but a disdain for collective 
bargaining and worker rights led to a destruction of the right to 
strike by refusing to release the parties from mediation and set a 
strike deadline. The last release was given in 2010 for the Spirit 
Pilots who achieved a contract after only a handful of days on strike. 
From routine use of the strike deadline to encourage the parties to 
reach agreement to one release in 20 years, workers have suffered the 
cost of never-ending negotiations. And companies have suffered the cost 
of eroded morale and inability to attract candidates to aviation jobs. 
Everyone has something to lose in a strike--the company and the 
workers--and it is a critical component to effective collective 
bargaining that balances interests and maintains a more just economy. 
Our union will press our rights for collective bargaining with the 
right to strike that's necessary to achieve the long overdue 
improvements we need--double digit pay increases, pay for all of our 
time on the job, scheduling protections that help consumers from 
operational meltdowns too, and a secure retirement with no additional 
costs for our healthcare.

    American flight attendants voted 99.5 percent in favor of a strike 
if the company fails to meet the demands of flight attendants that are 
long overdue. Airlines industry workers were set to negotiate across 
the industry in 2020, but the pandemic put that on hold. The Payroll 
Support System thankfully maintained the status quo, but without new 
contracts workers are falling behind total compensation we had just 
prior to 9/11 when adjusted for inflation. Alaska and United flight 
attendants are taking strike votes in the near term too. We need and 
expect the improvements we have earned, especially in the most 
tumultuous time on the job in the history of our careers. 

                           Echoes of the Past 
                           
    Workers today have more in common with the mineworkers in Ludlow 
than you may think, and our fights carry echoes of those historic 
fights.

    One of the core demands in Ludlow was pay for ``dead work.'' At the 
time, miners were paid for the tonnage of coal they dug. Members of the 
Committee may remember the miner's refrain, ``You dig 16 tons, and what 
do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt.'' Work like digging 
and fortifying the mines was considered ``dead work'' and unpaid. Not 
only did this mean no compensation for backbreaking labor, it pushed 
workers to take greater risks to dig more coal. Rather than wait to 
fortify a new shaft, workers might continue digging in areas that were 
unsafe. When your choice is between feeding your children and waiting 
for a safety check, it's easy to choose your children. And when they 
emerged from the mines, many miners went to their company-owned home 
and used company scrip to buy goods at the company store. They were 
often paid too little to cover all the costs the company imposed, so 
they went into debt to the companies they worked for and became trapped 
by the mine owners.

    A year ago, Americans were shocked to learn that Flight Attendants 
are not paid until the cabin door closes and the plane pushes back from 
the gate. As our union and our sister unions negotiate new contracts, 
we're demanding an end to that ``dead work'' and pay for the full time 
we're on the job.

    Teamsters and Auto Workers one hundred years ago demanded the 8-
hour workday, workplace safety rules, equal pay and fair benefits. In 
their landmark contracts, Teamsters and Auto Workers secured rules 
against forced overtime, unsafe working conditions and an end to the 
two-tier wage systems that left some workers forever earning too little 
to get ahead.

    We may not live in company towns or shop at company stores, but 
more and more jobs don't cover the cost of living. More and more of us 
struggle to pay rising rents in apartments owned by the same Wall 
Street investment firms that are pushing our employers to cut our pay 
and benefits, and pushing grocery stores and for-profit hospitals to 
raise prices for customers and lower wages for workers. The unbridled 
greed of the billionaire class undergirds our struggles at every turn, 
just as it did when J.P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie and John D. 
Rockefeller, Sr. controlled our economy more than 100 years ago.

    The way the ownership class views working people hasn't changed 
much in those hundred years. After the Ludlow Massacre and the 
Coalfield Wars in 1914, John D. Rockefeller, Sr. was called before 
Congress, where he testified that even knowing his hired goons had 
committed murder he ``would have taken no action'' \7\ to stop them 
from attacking more strikers.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \7\  https://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5735/.

    A few weeks into the writers' and actors' strikes this year, an 
anonymous executive told an industry press outlet ``The endgame is to 
allow things to drag on until union members start losing their 
apartments and losing their houses.'' \8\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \8\  https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/07/studios-
allegedly-wont-end-strike-til-writers-start-losing-their-apartments.

    Just as Rockefeller's words galvanized workers AND Congress to act, 
the studios' disrespect spurred writers and actors to greater 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
solidarity.

    The last time actors and writers went on strike together in 1960, 
they demanded residuals for TV and film, investment in their health and 
pension funds. In the deals negotiated this year through record-
breaking strikes, writers and actors won residuals for their work on 
streaming productions, improved pay, working conditions and benefits. 
Perhaps most notably, both groups beat back the idea that they could be 
replaced by artificial intelligence and the disgusting proposals that 
their works and their likenesses could become property of the studios 
to replicate and profit from in perpetuity.

    My union is proud to be the next tip in the spear for working 
people. We are engaged in a years-long fight at America's largest 
airlines. At Delta, as I mentioned before, Flight Attendants are coming 
together in an inspiring campaign to unionize the last major American 
carrier where our flying partners have no protections, no guarantees 
and no rights on the job. Delta's profits exceed the other airlines by 
billions. As President Shawn Fain has said, ``record profits require 
record contracts.'' While we work together to build solidarity, Delta 
management has repeatedly demonstrated its disdain for workers, for 
example by proposing that instead of forming a union workers should buy 
an X-Box.

    At legacy carriers like United, Alaska and American, our union and 
our sister union the Association of Professional Flight Attendants 
(APFA) are fighting for a fair share of the record profits that we 
create, protections from violence and harassment on the job, and a 
greater say in our workplaces.

    I must tell you this: I have never seen workers so united. At 
Delta, as I mentioned before, Flight Attendants, Ramp agents and 
mechanics are all organizing. In the past, management has told us that 
if one of us gets more, someone must get less. But today AFA, the 
Teamsters and the IAM are working together to support these courageous 
workers, and we are all supported by the Air Line Pilots Association. 
For generations, AFA and APFA were fed rumors about one another that 
seeped from management and poisoned our ability to work together. But 
today, we have overcome those divide-and-conquer strategies and we are 
united as one workforce to fight for the contracts and respect on the 
job flight attendants and other aviation workers deserve.

    You see it everywhere you look. The baristas who make your coffee. 
The clerks who bag your groceries. The pharmacists who fill your 
prescriptions. The teachers who nurture your children. Bus drivers, 
delivery workers, hotel staff, electricians. Across our economy, 
workers are coming together to fight for our fair share, for a decent 
life and a shot to live the American dream. This year, support for 
unions--and Americans' desire to have a union in their workplace--rose 
to the highest level in recorded history. 

  SkyWest Airlines Has Broken Labor Law for Years--We've Had to Take 
                             Them to Court  

    AFA has filed a Federal lawsuit against SkyWest Airlines, the 
regional airline that operates flights for Delta, Alaska, United, and 
American, and the SkyWest Inflight Association after the airline fired 
two longtime Flight Attendants, Tresa Grange with nearly 25 years with 
the company and Shane Price with 9 years. These Flight Attendants were 
fired for being lead activists who brought to light significant 
credible concerns over the voting procedures for the SkyWest Inflight 
Association.

    The SkyWest Inflight Association is an organization illegally 
propped up by SkyWest management that pretends to independently 
represent the flight attendants at SkyWest but is instead completely 
funded by SkyWest management. The way that SIA operates tricks flight 
attendants that they have a union without providing the same benefits 
that a union provides under the Railway Labor Act.

    This lawsuit is filed to remedy SkyWest Airlines' extraordinary 
violations of the Railway Labor Act and interference with its Flight 
Attendants' Federal right to seek collective bargaining 
representation,'' the complaint reads, \9\ ``SkyWest unlawfully uses 
carrier funds to maintain and operate Defendant SkyWest Inflight 
Association, which it claims is the representative for its Flight 
Attendant employees. SIA has acknowledged in one of its Handbooks that 
`SkyWest . . . funds the SkyWest Inflight Association.' ''
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \9\  2-23-cv-00723.pdf.

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                         Fight the Right Fight

    For decades, the billionaires convinced us to fight one another. 
And they're trying as hard as they can today. If you watch the news you 
might believe we're more divided than we've ever been. And it's true 
that our politics are creating enormous strain on our relationships 
with one another and with the very idea of America--a country rich with 
diversity of experience, ideas, and strength from people around the 
world.

    But when you walk into a union meeting, you see that we can find 
common ground. That's what the billionaires are afraid of. When I say 
``start in the workplace and the politics will follow,'' I mean that 
workplace solidarity overcomes the politics of division and that money 
doesn't control our politics when workers organize to take our fair 
share and claim our fair say in our democracy. When we realize that if 
the boss can fire you because of who you love or where you come from, 
he can fire me because of what I believe. When we understand that we 
are only as strong as the worker next to us, we want to make sure the 
worker next to us has the strength to fight--and sometimes that means 
lending them our strength, as the mineworkers did for the UAW's 
earliest fights, and as many of us have done for others over the 
generations.

    A union meeting is always a raucous place. But in our meetings, we 
learn democracy. We learn how to disagree but come together in the end. 
We learn how to make decisions for the greater good. We learn to 
negotiate, to collaborate, to listen and to find mutual respect--even 
in places where it seems impossible.

    When we find solidarity, we find power. We can use that power to 
hold capital accountable, to ensure that our voices are heard, our 
contributions respected and our work rewarded. When we build that power 
in the workplace, we build power in society. It's no mistake that even 
some of the most anti-union elected officials were out on the UAW's 
picket lines. They may vote against us when the chips are down, but 
they understand that there is power in our unions. There's a reason 
that Joe Biden became the first sitting President of the United States 
to walk a picket line. Yes, it's because he's a union man. But working 
people built the political power to make it possible for him to step 
out and clearly support us.

    That is what the exploiters fear; that our solidarity will build 
enough power to hold capital accountable to working people. For fifty 
years, more and more of the benefits of capitalism have gone to a tiny 
few at the top. Today, income is more unequal than even in the Gilded 
Age. A handful of individuals control more wealth than the bottom half 
combined. Real wages have stagnated while they built mega-yachts and 
flew private jets to their tropical islands--and put politicians and 
judges on those jets and yachts beside them.

    I have a question for this Committee, and a message for those 
billionaires who want to bleed the working class and the world dry. To 
the billionaires I say: there is plenty for everyone. You can still be 
fabulously wealthy, but if you continue to try to keep us poor you will 
find that working people are not going to take it anymore. To the 
Members of this Committee, to the elected leaders across this country 
and around the world, I ask you the question that working people have 
asked for generations: Which side are you on? 

                               Conclusion 
                               
    Thank you to Chairman Sanders and Dr. Cassidy for the opportunity 
to testify today. Unions are necessary for a stable economy, our 
safety, our security, and our democracy. Nothing is more important for 
our Nation to succeed than unions, collective bargaining, dialog 
required between divergent groups, solutions to the existential threats 
we face, and the strength and future of our world and nation. The 
Association of Flight Attendants-CWA is prepared to do our part. I look 
forward to your questions.
                                 ______
                                 
    The Chair. Thank you very much. Our next witness is Diana 
Furchtgott Roth, the Director of the Center for Energy, Climate 
Environment, and the Herbert and Joyce Morgan Fellow in Energy 
and Environmental Policy at the Heritage Foundation. Ms. 
Furchtgott Roth is an Oxford educated economist--pardon me?

    Senator Cassidy. Wasn't I going to introduce her?

    The Chair. All right.

    Senator Cassidy. I get to introduce you. So----

    [Laughter.]

    Ms. Furchtgott Roth. Yes.

    Senator Cassidy. I will also point out that the Chairman's 
witnesses all got at least a minute and a half or 2 minutes 
more to speak, so--and I knew you would do that. Very gracious. 
I am pleased to introduce a witness whose work focuses on 
policies promoting economic growth and individual freedom.

    Diana Furchtgott-Roth is the Director of the Center for 
Energy, Climate, and Environment at the Heritage Foundation, 
and an Adjunct Professor of Economics at George Washington 
University.

    She has worked in senior roles in the White House and also 
served in appointive positions at several agencies. The author 
and coauthor of six books and hundreds of articles on economic 
policy, including Regulating to Disaster, How Green Jobs 
Policies Are Destroying America's Economy.

    Ms. Furchtgott Roths testimony will discuss the 
implications to the U.S. auto industry of the Biden 
administration's EV mandates and how the recent UAW agreement 
with automakers accelerates the loss of American auto jobs.

    She will also testify on the reasons workers choose not to 
join a union. Ms. Furchtgott Roth received economics degrees 
from Swarthmore College and Oxford University. Welcome. We 
appreciate you being here and look forward to your testimony.

     STATEMENT OF DIANA FURCHTGOTT ROTH, DIRECTOR, CEN- 
       TER FOR ENERGY, CLIMATE, AND ENVIRONMENT AND THE 
       HERBERT, JOYCE MORGAN FELLOW IN ENERGY AND ENVI- 
       RONMENTAL POLICY, THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION, WASH- 
       INGTON, DC 

    Ms. Furchtgott Roth. Thank you very much, Chairman Sanders, 
Ranking Member, Dr. Cassidy, Members of the Committee. I am 
honored to be invited to testify before you today.

    The UAW had such a single minded focus on getting more 
money for their members that they forgot even to try to help 
out farmers, families, and other workers and unions.

    The Biden administration's electric vehicle mandate puts 
the economy at the mercy of Government dictates in a planned 
economy that will destroy the livelihoods of small business, 
non-unionized workers, and eventually even unionized auto 
workers without making car companies more competitive or 
solving climate change challenges.

    This will put our children's future at the mercy of China. 
If the UAW were truly interested in helping its members and 
American families, it would have pushed for Detroit and other 
auto companies to try to make--to continue to make the internal 
combustion engines and hybrids that Americans want to buy, 
rather than going all electric in 2035.

    What would help all American working families is getting 
rid of the Biden EV mandate, which you, Senators and the House 
of Representatives did not pass. Instead, the UAW talks on its 
website of a ``just transition'' to electric vehicles.

    It is not justice to make cars that are so expensive that 
most Americans can't afford to buy them. The electric version 
of the F-150 pickup truck costs $26,000 more than the gasoline 
version. It loses battery range when it is cold or when it has 
to tow something, and it takes an hour to recharge, and that is 
if the charger works, and no one is ahead of you in line.

    Plus, going electric offshores American jobs to China, 
including slave labor in Xinjiang because the Chinese make 80 
percent of the world's batteries. Ford Motor Company President 
Jim Farley estimated that with all EVs, the auto industry will 
need 400,000 fewer jobs in the long run.

    The EV plan is poison for auto workers, small businesses 
such as plumbers, electricians, and auto repair shops and 
farmers who rely on gasoline powered engines for pickup trucks 
and equipment. Ford is losing $60,000 per EV sold and unsold 
EVs are piling up on dealers' lots.

    GM and Ford announced they are cutting back on projections 
of EV sales and lowering production targets for cars and 
batteries and postponing over $15 billion in EV investment. 
There will also be with EVs layoffs in auto parts companies and 
among your local mechanics who repair your gasoline powered 
cars.

    Unions act in their own interests, as can be seen by the 
simple focus on UAW member pay at the cost of the interests of 
members of other unions. When auto workers were on strike pay 
of $500 a week, union leaders were still collecting their full 
salaries, in some cases, over a quarter of a million dollars a 
year.

    Only 10 percent of American workers and 6 percent of 
American private sector workers belong to a union in 2022, down 
from 33 percent in the 1950's and 20 percent in the 1980's, but 
some Members of Congress are still trying to push Americans 
into unions. Why the decline in membership? Union corruption is 
endemic, and Americans don't like it.

    Teamsters drove yellow trucking into bankruptcy with a loss 
of 30,000 jobs. Stellantis, former Fiat, Chrysler, and the UAW 
are still under Federal oversight.

    Stellantis admitted to making more than $3.5 million in 
illegal payments to UAW union bosses, including, and I quote, 
``extravagant meals, rounds of golf, lavish parties for the UAW 
International Executive Board, an Italian made shotgun, 
clothing, designer shoes, and other personal items paid for 
with credit cards issued by the Joint Training Center,'' which 
was the UAW, Chrysler's Skill Development and Training Program.

    FCA executives also paid off the $262,000 home mortgage of 
former UAW Vice President General Holiefield. Holiefield and 
his widow also received hundreds of thousands of dollars 
directed through Holiefield's purported charitable 
organization.

    I would like to submit the U.S. Office of Eastern District 
of Michigan March 1, 2021 press release on Fiat Chrysler's 
guilty plea for the record. Working families also don't want to 
pay money into failed pensions.

    Last year, Congress spent $36 billion in taxpayer funds to 
shore up failing union pension plans, such as the Central 
States Pension Fund.

    Otherwise, 2.5 million union workers and retirees would not 
have received their promised pensions because unions didn't 
take care to fund members' pensions, although their own 
pensions were fully funded.

    Even after the massive taxpayer funded bailout, plans are 
in trouble. In 2023, the Labor Department listed 45 union plans 
in critical status, which is defined as less than 65 percent 
funded, or an endangered status, with less than 80 percent 
funded.

    Unions desperately need new workers to join because they 
pay contributions to pension plans for many years without 
withdrawing money. While this year's critical status notices, 
and it is on the Department of Labor website, include bakery 
drivers, Local 80-802 Pension Fund, IBT Local 840 Pension Plan, 
ironworkers, bricklayers, carpenters, the Local 945 IBT Pension 
Plan, Teamsters Local 469 Pension Plan.

    I don't have time to read them all, so I would like to 
submit the entire 2023 Department of Labor list for the record. 
Union leaders and their allies on Capitol Hill believe the way 
to increase membership after decades of decline is to pass the 
Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize, PRO Act, 
which would force workers into corrupt unions with unfunded 
pensions.

    The PRO Act would harm millions of small businesses and 
people who work as independent contractors and in the franchise 
business center. Many would lose businesses and their jobs. It 
would weaken the right to a secret ballot in elections for 
union representation, even though Mr. Fain, seated here, 
insisted on a secret ballot for his election as union 
President.

    This gives union officials the power to intimidate workers 
because they know how they vote, where they live, and where 
their children go to school. In a highly competitive economy, 
with 9.6 million unfilled jobs, workers have many options and 
shouldn't be forced by the PRO Act to pay union dues and fund 
failing union pension plans.

    Workers don't trust union leaders, and the new UAW contract 
provides additional justification. Many thanks.

    [The prepared statement of Ms. Furchtgott Roth follows:]

              prepared statement of diana furchtgott-roth 
              
 Missed Opportunity: How the UAW Has Failed America's Working Families 
 
    My name is Diana Furchtgott-Roth. I am the director of the Center 
for Energy, Climate, and Environment at The Heritage Foundation. The 
views I express in this testimony are my own and should not be 
construed as representing any official position of The Heritage 
Foundation.

    Chairman Sanders, Ranking Member Cassidy, Members of the Committee, 
I am honored to be invited to testify before you today on the subject 
of ``Missed Opportunity: How the UAW Has Failed Working Families.'' In 
addition to my role at The Heritage Foundation, I am also an adjunct 
professor of economics at George Washington University. My professional 
training is in economics. From 2019 to 2021 I was deputy assistant 
secretary for research and technology at the U.S. Department of 
Transportation. Previous positions include acting assistant secretary 
for economic policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury; chief 
economist at the U.S. Department of Labor; and chief of staff of the 
Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush.

    Today I'd like to make the following points:

    If the UAW were truly helping its members, it would have negotiated 
for the auto companies to continue to make the internal combustion 
engines and hybrids that Americans want to buy, rather than going all 
electric in 2035. What would help all American working families is 
getting rid of electric vehicle (EV) mandate--which Congress did not 
pass. Administration is doing an end run around Congress.

    Only 6 percent of private-sector American workers belong to unions, 
because they do not think that the dues are a worthwhile investment of 
their hard-earned dollars and they don't want the inflexibility of a 
union environment. The PRO Act would not help workers, who should have 
the freedom to join unions using a secret ballot, and also to leave 
unions when they choose to do so.

                 New UAW Contract is Missed Opportunity

    Not only does the new UAW contract make GM, Ford and Stellantis 
uncompetitive with non-union automakers, but it preserves the 
automakers' plans to eliminate production of internal combustion engine 
cars by 2035.

    United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain has repeatedly spoken out 
against EVs because he knows that electrification of the automobile 
will mean fewer auto workers. To give one example, he said in a 
statement on April 26, 2023, ``Stellantis' push to cut thousands of 
jobs while raking in billions in profits is disgusting. This is a slap 
in the face to our members, their families, their communities, and the 
American people who saved this company 15 years ago. Even now, 
politicians and taxpayers are bankrolling the electric vehicle 
transition, and this is the thanks the working class gets. Shame on 
Stellantis.'' \1\1
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ United Auto Workers, UAW Statement on Job Cuts at Stellantis, 
https://uaw.org/uaw-statement-job-cuts-stellantis (accessed May 1, 
2023).

    The renegotiation of the UAW contract was an opportunity for the 
UAW to make Detroit automakers go back on their promise of electrifying 
the fleet by 2035. Yet the UAW in its new contracts did not succeed in 
getting the Detroit automakers to give up making the cars people want 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
to buy.

    Ford Motor Company president Jim Farley estimated that the industry 
will need 40 percent fewer workers to produce EVs rather than gas-
powered cars and light trucks. That's 200,000 fewer jobs in 2030 and 
400,000 fewer jobs in the long run. The EV plan is poison for auto 
workers and the UAW should have tried to change it.

    This was the ideal time to apply pressure because Detroit 
automakers are waking up to reality. Ford is losing $60,000 per EV sold 
and unsold EVs are piling up on dealers' lots. After promising the 
Biden administration that they would eliminate most of the cars 
Americans want to buy from dealer lots by 2035, GM and Ford last month 
announced they are cutting back on projections of EV sales and lowering 
production targets for the cars and batteries.

    Ford Chief Financial Officer John Lawler said on a media call, 
``Given the dynamic EV environment, we are being judicious about our 
production and adjusting future capacity to better match market 
demand.'' He announced that Ford is postponing $12 billion of spending 
and investment on EVs, including a Kentucky battery plant, after it 
halted its $3.5 billion Michigan-China battery partnership in 
September.

    This follows an announcement by General Motors on Oct. 17 that it 
is pausing expansion of electric pickups ``due to evolving EV demand.''

    A new UAW contract should have forced the Detroit automakers to 
shelve plans to go all electric.

    It is not only auto company employees are hurt by plans to go all 
EV. There will also be layoffs in auto parts companies, and mechanics 
who repair gasoline-powered cars. EVs have fewer parts, and the new 
batteries come from China. Local mechanics who repair internal 
combustion engine cars now will not be able to repair EVs. It is a 
tragedy that Americans' jobs in auto plants, in auto parts 
manufacturing, and in auto repair and upkeep are being sacrificed to 
Chinese nationals (sometimes with forced labor) making EVs, batteries 
and electric vehicle components.

    Detroit auto makers are going along with new proposed regulations 
on automobile emissions from the Environmental Protection Agency that 
would require new car sales to be 60 percent battery powered electric 
by 2030 and 67 percent by 2032, compared to fewer than 6 percent in 
2022. EPA is also planning new rules for power plants, driving up the 
costs of the electricity needed to charge these vehicles. These rules 
would not only eliminate American auto-related jobs but raise driving 
costs for Americans.

    The UAW could have helped all American families by taking a stand 
against EVs in the negotiation process. But it did not. Most Americans 
prefer a gasoline-powered vehicle. The best-selling car in America is 
the Ford F-150 pickup truck. Small businesses, farmers, and Americans 
who need to get to work, school, or shopping use these vehicles every 
day.

    New electric vehicles cost more than gasoline-powered vehicles. The 
electric version of the base version of the Ford 150 pickup truck, the 
best-selling vehicle in America, costs an additional $26,000. Tesla's 
base prices start at about $40,000 for a Model 3 and go up to almost 
$100,000 for a Model X. These are staggering costs to impose on 
American families. Cars are part of the American Dream for many 
Americans, a dream that for too many American families is put out of 
reach by these new regulations.

    Charging will also cost more. At the same time as EPA has proposed 
new rules for automobile emissions, it has also proposed new rules for 
emissions from power plants. EPA plans to regulate carbon dioxide and 
other so-called greenhouse gas emissions from both new and existing 
natural gas and coal-fired power plants, and require carbon capture 
systems or a switch to hydrogen fuels. These systems for capturing 
carbon are costly and will be passed on to consumers in the form of 
higher electricity rates. Drivers will find it more expensive to use 
electricity for all purposes, including charging their electric 
vehicles, harming poor and middle-class drivers the most.

    Recharging an electric vehicle from empty can take over an hour, 
compared to 5 minutes to fill up with gas. If there is a line to use 
the charging station the wait can double. Most people do not want to 
let their EV battery go below 20 percent, and the charging rate goes 
down when it is charged over 80 percent. Throughout America the poor 
rarely have access to indoor garages for overnight charging, and in 
most large cities, such as New York City, the middle-class also have no 
access to indoor charging. Using charging stations on the street, if 
available, risks theft of expensive charging cables.

    Battery-powered vehicles lack sufficient range to satisfy most 
American families. Although 60 to 70 miles of range is enough for most 
trips, people buy cars for all circumstances, including vacations and 
cold weather. Moreover, batteries lose up to 40 percent of their range 
in cold climates. A study by Autocar shows that electric vehicles lose, 
on average, a third of their range in the winter, which reduces the 
typical 240-mile range to 160 miles. If a heat pump is added to the 
car, the loss is less, but still the 240-mile range would shrink to 
180.

    The loss of range in cold weather is one reason why, at the end of 
2021, the latest full year available, North Dakota had 380 electric 
vehicle (EV) registrations, the fewest in the United States. Wyoming 
has 510 registered EVs, South Dakota had 680 EVs, and Alaska had 1,290. 
In comparison, there were 563,070 registered EVs in California and 
95,640 in Florida.

    Minerals such as lithium and cobalt are essential for batteries. 
Mining for these minerals is energy-intensive, and the Chinese 
Communist Party (CCP) has facilitated access to domestic and foreign 
minerals for battery production. Lithium is mined in western China's 
Qinghai Province, aided by government funding, and China purchases 
cobalt for electric batteries from Kisanfu, in the Democratic Republic 
of Congo. The United States makes opening new mines virtually 
impossible, even though the jobs generated would help all Americans, 
particularly the poor and middle class. Thus, EVs will result in a 
massive increase in mining in countries that have no respect for the 
environment or human welfare. The sorts of mining that will be 
conducted as a result of the rule will be bad for the environment and 
are frequently performed by child workers.

    Electric vehicles are not emissions free. In addition to batteries 
made with fossil fuels, increased electricity demand places additional 
stress on the electrical grid, as California has found out from rolling 
blackouts. Electricity to charge EVs is made with natural gas and coal, 
because wind and solar powers a small share of America's electricity. 
EPA admits that ``We expect that in some areas, increased electricity 
generation would increase ambient SO2, PM 2.5, ozone, or some air 
toxics.'' 

                    Union Membership and the PRO Act 
                    
    Unions do not act in the interests of all American families, but in 
their own interests. Although American families find better uses than 
union dues for their hard-earned dollars, and union membership has been 
declining for decades, some in Congress are still trying to push 
Americans into unions. The latest data from the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics show that 6 percent of private sector workers belonged to a 
union in 2022, down from 6.1 percent in 2021. The total union 
membership rate was 10.1 percent in 2022, down from 10.3 percent in 
2021. During the 1950's, one third of American workers belonged to 
unions, and in 1983, the last year for which comparable data exists, 
20.1 percent of workers belonged to unions.

    Although this is not a problem for American workers, who get to 
keep more of paychecks, it is a problem for union leaders, because 
their salaries depend on union dues and initiation fees. That's why 
union leaders and their supporters are trying to change the law to 
force hard-working Americans into unions through the Richard L. Trumka 
Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2023 (PRO Act), a bill that 
would expand the power of union leaders at the expense of workers.

    American workers have been wise to reject union membership. Before 
Congress passed the American Rescue Plan in 2022, which authorized $36 
billion in taxpayer funds to shore up failing union pension plans, such 
as the Central States Pension Fund, 2.5 million union workers and 
retirees would not have received their promised pensions because unions 
did not take care to fund members' pensions. Even after the massive 
taxpayer-funded pension bailout, plans are in trouble. In 2023, the 
Labor Department listed 45 union plans in critical status, defined as 
less than 65 percent funded, or in endangered status, with less than 80 
percent funded. Unions desperately need new workers to join, because 
they pay contributions for many years without withdrawing money.

    Union leaders and their allies on Capitol Hill believe the way to 
increase membership after decades of decline is to pass the PRO Act, 
which would make it easier to organize workers against their will. The 
idea behind the PRO Act, and different proposed regulations now being 
issued by the Department of Labor and the National Labor Relations 
Board, is to encourage employment by large businesses rather than by 
small franchised businesses or free-lance work. Workers in the gig 
economy are seen as falling through the cracks in a fissured workplace, 
to use the words of Professor David Weil, former administrator of the 
Wage and Hour Division at the U.S. Department of Labor.

    The PRO Act would restrict the ability to be an independent 
contractor, and it would attempt to define employees of franchised 
businesses as employees of the corporations that manage the franchise. 
This would harm millions of working Americans who work as independent 
contractors and in the franchise business sector.

    The PRO Act would weaken the right to a secret ballot in elections 
for union representation, providing scope for intimidation and 
corruption by exposing workers' votes to employers, colleagues, and 
union officials. It would allow the National Labor Relations Board to 
overturn secret ballot elections and put in place a union using signed 
cards, which are not secret.

    Equally harmful, the PRO Act would impose mandatory binding 
arbitration on contracts between workers and employers, if the union 
and the employer fail to reach an agreement on pay and benefits. These 
mandatory terms are unprecedented in American labor law and revoke the 
basic principle of collective bargaining--that employers and unions are 
free to disagree unless they voluntarily accept arbitration.

    Another provision in the PRO Act would abolish right-to-work laws 
passed in 27 states. These laws protect workers by stating that 
employers cannot force employees to join a union as a condition of 
employment. Many right-to-work states have lower unemployment rates and 
higher rates of economic growth than other states.

    Proposed penalties from the PRO Act include fining employers that 
hold staff meetings at which union organizing is discussed; and 
creating new fines of $50,000 per firm for unfair labor practices. Such 
fines could put small firms out of business or discourage them from 
challenging union organizing.

    In our highly competitive economy with 9.6 million unfilled jobs, 
workers have many options and shouldn't be forced by the PRO Act to pay 
union dues and fund failing union pension plans. Many Americans believe 
they can get great pay, safe working conditions, and wonderful benefits 
without help from a union. Workers may not want to have an adversarial 
relationship with their employer, instead they may want to feel pride 
in their career and their employer. Big union contracts may be too 
risky for the business in the long-term and ultimately may have a 
negative impact on job security. Workers don't trust union leaders, and 
the new UAW contract provides additional justification.

    Thanks for giving me the opportunity to testify today. I would be 
glad to take questions.
                                 ______
                                 
    The Chair. Thank you. Senator Cassidy are you going to 
introduce the next----

    Senator Cassidy. Yes. My next witness is Sean Higgins. Mr. 
Higgins is a Research Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise 
Institute, specializing in labor and employment issues. As a 
journalist, he has covered the intersection of politics and 
economics for two decades.

    He was a Senior Writer for the Washington Examiner, 
Washington correspondent for Investor's Business Daily, and a 
contributor to publications including Reason Magazine and 
National Review Online.

    His scholarship includes a study on the long forgotten 
legislative history of the National Labor Relations Board Act 
and an analysis of the PRO Act. His testimony will discuss how 
the NLRA was intended to protect the rights of individual 
workers to join or not join a union, and how the PRO Act does 
little to expand the rights of individual workers.

    Mr. Higgins, welcome. Thanks for being here. We look 
forward to your testimony.

        STATEMENT OF SEAN HIGGINS, RESEARCH FELLOW, 
      COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE, ARLINGTON, VA 

    Mr. Higgins. Thank you. I will try and keep this within 5 
minutes. Chairman Sanders, Dr. Cassidy, Members of the 
Committee, thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My 
name is Sean Higgins, and I am a Research Fellow for the 
Competitive Enterprise Institute.

    CEI first and foremost stands for the individual worker. We 
support the workers' right to engage in collective bargaining 
and the right to refrain from engaging in it, support the 
rights of the individual worker to do as they choose and oppose 
any encroachment upon those rights.

    Preserving the right to dissent, to stand apart from and 
oppose the crowd, no matter how unpopular that stance might be 
to others, is important and should be protected just as much in 
this sphere of labor as is in civil rights. Those rights must 
be remembered as we consider the impact of labor unions.

    I would like to start by discussing a bit about the 
National Labor Relations Act itself, because my research 
suggests the principal author of the Act would agree. The 
introductory section of the law says, ``it is declared to be 
the policy of the United States to eliminate the causes of 
certain substantial obstructions to the free flow of commerce 
and to mitigate and eliminate these obstructions when they have 
occurred by encouraging the practice and procedure of 
collective bargaining.''

    The sections use of the word encouraging is often cited by 
individuals as the rationale for legislation or Federal rules 
designed to prod workers into joining unions. That the Federal 
Government's role is to encourage unionization. That is not 
what the law's author and New York Senator Robert Wagner, a 
Democrat, said at the time of its passage, however.

    His view is that the Government should be a neutral 
arbiter. He would defend the rights of those--it would defend 
the rights of those who sought to engage in collective 
bargaining, provided that doing so was their own affirmative 
choice.

    In testimony before this very same Committee in 1935, 
Senator Wagner said, ``that is all this bill does so far as I 
can see. It leaves the worker a free man to organize or not to 
organize as he chooses and that is all it does.''

    Lest you think I am taking a single section out of context, 
in another exchange with another witness in the hearings, 
Columbia University Economist, Dr. Paul Brissenden, Senator 
Wagner denounced the, ``propaganda, which has been pretty 
widespread, that the purpose of this Act is to impose some 
particular union upon the manufacturers of the United States.

    This bill does not do anything of this kind except that it 
does make the worker a free man, so he may decide whether he 
wants a union or not. And if he wants one, what particular 
union he wants to represent him, or whether he wants to remain 
unorganized.''

    The NLRA, as it should be understood, was originally fix it 
legislation. Collective bargaining rights for private sector 
workers in general was first granted in 1933 as National 
Industrial Recovery Act.

    With Federal law now affirming the right to collective 
bargaining, unions at the time made a concerted push to 
organize industries that had previously resisted it. The 
industrial leaders of the time fought this with strikebreakers 
and 1934 became one of the bloodiest years ever for labor 
unrest.

    This tied up all manner of commerce. Factories went idle. 
Goods didn't ship. As the Country was still trying to get out 
of the Great Depression. A second related problem emerged, 
corporations responded to the new Federal law with a, if you 
can't beat them, join them attitude, and created unions of 
their own for their employees to join.

    If you work for GM, congratulations, you can now join the 
Chevrolet Employees Association. Quite a few GM employees did. 
The degree to which they were pressured to do so was unclear. 
The independent unions at the time called these company union 
sham organizations for the obvious reason.

    A company run union has a clear conflict of interest and 
therefore--and was therefore unlikely to properly serve the 
interests of the workers. That said, such organizations did not 
appear to be illegal under the Industrial Recovery Act.

    Wagner's NLRA was meant to rectify this, to assert--to 
affirm the right to collective bargaining, while also ensuring 
that workers were not coerced into joining labor unions they 
did not wish to join or did not reflect their interests.

    ``That is all--that is what I am interested in. Whatever 
the men want to do. If they want to bargain individually or 
through an organization within a plant, that is all right, only 
if it is the free choice of the men,'' Wagner told this 
Committee.

    It should be further noted that the NLRA section 
encouraging collective bargaining follows a preamble about 
certain substantial obstructions to the free flow of commerce 
and the need to mitigate and eliminate these obstructions when 
they have occurred.

    In short, encouraging collective bargaining is called for 
as a solution when labor unrest has created a ripple effect 
that threatens the broader economy. This is a reference to the 
violence that occurred in the year before the law's passage.

    The purpose of this hearings is to tout and promote unions 
as a boon to the economy and to workers. CEI does support a 
worker's right to engage in collective bargaining. It also 
supports the worker's right not to engage or otherwise opt out. 
Attempts to expand collective bargaining by workers can easily 
fall into the trap of coercing workers and making them do 
things on the basis of, for your own good.

    The Protecting the Right to Organize Act would, for 
example, strip workers in 27 states of the right to decide for 
themselves if they wish to join or otherwise support a union. 
Nothing about a right to work law prevents workers from joining 
or being active in unions, if they wish, however. They simply 
preserve the right of the individual to dissent. The best force 
for raising a lot of the individual workers is a strong economy 
with a tight labor market.

    We have seen over the last year and a half what happens 
when employers are put in the position of having to compete for 
workers. Wages rise and benefits expand on their own. With 
that, I thank you and I am happy to take any questions.

    [The prepared statement of Mr. Higgins follows:]

                   prepared statement of sean higgins 
                   
    Chairman Sanders, Dr. Cassidy, ladies and gentlemen of the 
Committee, thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is 
Sean Higgins and I am a research fellow for the Competitive Enterprise 
Institute.

    CEI first and foremost stands for the individual worker. We support 
the worker's right to engage in collective bargaining and their right 
to refrain from engaging in it. We support the rights of the individual 
worker to do as they choose and oppose any encroachments upon those 
rights. Preserving the right to dissent, to stand apart from and oppose 
the crowd, no matter unpopular that stance might be to others, is 
important and should be protected just as much in the sphere of labor 
rights as it is in civil rights.

    Those rights must be remembered as we consider the impact of labor 
unions. I would like to start by discussing a bit about the National 
Labor Relations Act itself, because my research suggests the principal 
author of the act would agree.

    The introductory section of the law says: ``It is declared to be 
the policy of the United States to eliminate the causes of certain 
substantial obstructions to the free flow of commerce and to mitigate 
and eliminate these obstructions when they have occurred by encouraging 
the practice and procedure of collective bargaining.''

    The section's use of the word ``encouraging'' is often cited by 
individuals as the rationale for legislation or Federal rules designed 
to prod workers into joining unions--That the Federal Government's role 
is to encourage unionization.

    This is not what the law's author, New York Senator Robert Wagner, 
said at the time of its passage. His view was that the government 
should be a neutral arbiter. It would defend the rights of those who 
sought to engage in collective bargaining, provided that doing so was 
their own affirmative choice. In testimony before this very same 
Committee in 1935, Senator Wagner said ``That is all that this bill 
does, so far as I can see. It leaves the worker a free man to organize 
or not to organize as he chooses, and that is all it does.''

    Lest you think I am taking a single section out of context, in 
another an exchange with another witness in the hearings, Columbia 
University economist Dr. Paul Brissenden, Senator Wagner denounced, 
``[The] propaganda, which has been pretty widespread, that the purpose 
of this act is to impose some particular union upon the manufacturers 
of the United States . . . this bill does not do anything of this kind 
except that it does make a worker a free man so he may decide whether 
he wants a union or not, and, if he wants one, what particular union he 
wants to represent him, or whether he wants to remain unorganized.''

    Wagner said in an April, 1935 nationwide radio address, ``The 
malicious falsehood has been widely circulated that the measure was 
designed to force men into unions, although the text provides in simple 
English prose that workers shall be absolutely free to belong or to 
refrain from belonging to any organization.''

    The NLRA, it should be understood, was originally fix-it 
legislation. The first Federal law to include collective bargaining 
rights was the Railway Labor Act in 1926, but that was limited to the 
transportation industry. Collective bargaining rights for private 
sector workers in general was first granted in 1933's National 
Industrial Recovery Act. The hope at the time--this was the Great 
Depression--was that collective bargaining would increase worker wages. 
The law inadvertently sparked a year of unprecedented labor strife. 
With Federal law now affirming the right to collective bargaining, 
unions made a concerted push to organize industries that had previously 
resisted it. The industrial leaders of the time fought this with strike 
breakers and 1934 became one of the bloodiest, if not the bloodiest, 
years ever for labor unrest. This tied up all manner of commerce--
factories went idle, goods didn't ship--as the country was still trying 
to get out of the Great Depression.

    A second, related problem emerged: Corporations responded to the 
new Federal law with a ``if you can't beat'em, join `em'' attitude and 
created unions of their own for their employees to join. If you worked 
for GM, congratulations, you could now join the ``Chevrolet Employees 
Association.'' Quite a few GM employees did. The degree to which they 
were pressured to do so was unclear. The independent unions of the time 
call these company unions sham organizations for the obvious reason: A 
company-run union has a clear conflict of interest and was therefore 
unlikely to properly serve the interests of the workers. That said, 
such organizations did not appear to be illegal under the Industrial 
Recovery Act.

    A final problem was that the Industrial Recovery Act was itself 
being challenged and would eventually be declared unconstitutional by 
the courts for reasons not directly related to its labor provisions.

    Wagner's NLRA was meant to rectify this: to affirm the right to 
collective bargaining and protect the exercise of it while also 
ensuring that workers were not coerced into joining labor unions that 
they did not wish to join or did not reflect their interests. He 
attempted to thread this needle by affirming that joining in collective 
bargaining was an individual right and that refraining to join was just 
as valid of a choice. The worker's interest came first, regardless of 
what it was.

    ``That is what I am interested in. Whatever the men want to do, if 
they want to bargain individually, or through an organization within a 
plant, that is all right, only if it is the free choice of the men. Of 
course, we are all for that. That is all I am seeking to do, to make 
the worker a free man to make his choice, and I think I have been 
emphasizing that,'' Wagner told this Committee.

    It should be further noted that the NLRA's section ``encouraging'' 
collective bargaining follows a preamble about ``certain substantial 
obstructions to the free flow of commerce'' and the need to ``mitigate 
and eliminate these obstructions when they have occurred.'' In short, 
encouraging collective bargaining is called for as a solution when 
labor unrest has created a ripple effect that threatens the broader 
economy. This is a reference to the violence that occurred in the year 
before the law's passage.

    The Biden administration's decision last year to step in and force 
a contract on the railroad industry and its unions is the type of 
scenario that was being envisioned in the NLRA--even if that particular 
action involved the Railway Labor Act. The administration feared that a 
strike by the railway workers would create a replay of the supply chain 
crisis of 2021 and so it stepped in and bound both sides to a contract 
to prevent that potential economic disruption.

    Incidentally, CEI opposed the Biden administration's intervention 
in that instance. We believed there was still time remaining for 
railroad industry management and the unions to strike a deal on their 
own. It's not uncommon for such negotiations to be resolved at the 11th 
hour, after all. CEI believes the administration acted prematurely and 
out of fear.

    The purpose of this hearing is tout and promote labor unions as a 
boon to the economy and to workers. The CEI does support a worker's 
right to engage in collective bargaining. It also supports a worker's 
right not to engage or to otherwise opt out. Attempts to expand 
collective bargaining by workers can easily fall into the trap of 
coercing workers, of making them do things on the basis of ``for your 
own good.'' The Protecting the Right to Organize Act would, for 
example, strip workers in 27 states of the right to decide for 
themselves if they wish to join or support a union. Nothing about right 
to work laws prevent workers from joining and being active in unions if 
they wish. They simply preserve the right of the individual to dissent.

    The best force for raising the lot of the individual worker is a 
strong economy and a tight labor market. We've seen over the last year 
and a half what happens when employers are put in the position of 
having to compete for workers: wages rise and benefits expand on their 
own. The so-called gig economy should also be allowed to flourish. The 
ability of workers to sell their labor to the highest bidder--or, to 
use the old-fashioned term, ``freelance''--should be encouraged, not 
restricted.

    With that, I thank you and am happy to take any questions.
                                 ______
                                 
                  [summary statement of sean higgins] 
                  
    CEI support the individual worker's right to engage--and to refrain 
from engaging in collective bargaining. The legislative history of the 
National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) makes clear that the intent of the 
law, as expressed by its author Senator Robert Wagner, was the 
government should be a neutral arbiter. It should defend the rights of 
those who want to join a union--as long as doing so is their choice.

    The NLRA was designed to address worker strife resulting from 
workers asserting their collective bargaining rights under the National 
Industrial Recovery Act and industrial leaders fighting their attempts 
to unionize. This unrest tied up commerce as the country was still 
trying to get out of the Great Depression.

    Another problem emerged: corporations created unions of their own 
for workers to join. These company-run unions had a clear conflict of 
interest and were therefore unlikely to serve the interests of workers.

    Finally, the National Industry Recovery Act would later be declared 
unconstitutional.

    These developments set the stage for passage of the NLRA, which was 
to protect workers' choice to join or not join a union.

    The best force for helping individual workers is a strong economy 
and a tight labor market, when employers have to compete for workers. 
Attempts to expand collective bargaining, such as the PRO Act, can fall 
into the trap of coercing workers to join unions ``for their own 
good.''
                                 ______
                                 
    The Chair. Thank you very much. Now we begin the 
questioning. Let me ask one question to the three union 
representatives here. And it is a two part question.

    My first part is, in your experience, how do workers feel 
about the reality that there are CEOs in America now make 350 
times more than the average worker?

    Question No. 1.

    Question No. 2, what plans do you have to organize the 
unorganized in your areas of influence? Mr. Fain.

    Mr. Fain. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess in both those 
questions, I mean, the CEO pay issue, obviously we highlighted 
that a lot throughout the process. And it is despicable that 
someone--it would take one of our workers 350 years to make 
what a CEO makes in a year.

    The Chair. The head of C--of GM made how much?

    Mr. Fain. $29 million.

    The Chair. Okay. And--wages at one of the automobile plants 
was what?

    Mr. Fain. Prior to this contract, $16 something an hour. 
But the sad irony in this is just the fact that we workers in 
this country are fed up, and that is what this is all about.

    It doesn't just matter for UAW members. This is working 
class people in general. We have to ask ourselves what kind of 
society we want to live in. And co-pays run rampant. We hear 
the talk about competition all the time, of being competitive 
and us being competitive with the transplants.

    But it is funny, I don't hear that talk when it comes to 
CEO pay. The average big three CEOs make almost $25 million, 
$30 million a year. The average CEOs of the transplants make 
around anywhere from $3 to $5 million. But we never hear that 
argument.

    The Chair. All right. Let me ask you the second part of the 
question, organizing efforts. What plans do you have to 
organize unorganized workers?

    Mr. Fain. We are going to organize like hell. It is--I have 
said this throughout the last year that when you bargain good 
agreements, when you set a standard, people want to be a part 
of that success.

    It is what changed my grandparents life. It is what changed 
millions of workers' lives in this country back in the 30's, 
40's, and 50's, and 60's. And so we have had thousands of 
workers from nonunion plants reach out throughout this process, 
want to be a part of this, and we are going to go to work.

    The Chair. Mr. O'Brien, same question. How do your--how do 
workers in general, in your experience, feel about huge income 
and wealth inequality we are seeing? What kind of organizing 
efforts are you planning?

    Mr. O'Brien. Well, I think first and foremost----

    The Chair. Microphone, please.

    Mr. O'Brien. Sorry. I think first and foremost, Chairman 
Sanders our members obviously want to be rewarded for the work 
that they do.

    I know there was, prior to us coming to the record 
settlement with UPS and many other agreements that we have 
negotiated in the last 20 months is that people that have never 
performed the job, people that have never touched a package, 
people that have never went out and delivered through the 
toughest times, the pandemic, putting themselves and their 
family at risk are rewarding them--with rewarding themselves 
with record bonuses and pay and obviously record profits.

    All the while, our members were status quo. There is no 
doubt that CEO pay has increased, I think, since 1979 on the 
average of 1,400 percent. And I think the average U.S. worker, 
both nonunion and union combined, has only increased by about 
17 percent. So, there is a huge disparity there and our members 
don't like it.

    But the reality is, is that is why we have the ability to 
collectively bargain and hold these employers accountable, and 
actually state facts for the record on what our members do as 
far as organizing goes.

    We are utilizing any and all collective bargaining 
agreements, especially now, as a template to show the nonunion 
workers the benefits and protections that they will receive 
when they join a union. And there is no better testimonial than 
actually holding a contract that has been signed by an employer 
that guarantees the terms and conditions.

    Now, if you would ask a nonunion employer to or if you ask 
someone that is nonunion to go to their employer and say, could 
you guarantee me these, would that nonunion employer sign that?

    The Chair. Okay. Ms. Nelson.

    Ms. Nelson. Flight attendants and other workers are enraged 
that when they can't make ends meet, that they have got every 
person in the house working two and three jobs or overtime just 
to try to get by and still scraping from paycheck to paycheck, 
that other people are living in lavish, lavish conditions.

    That airline executives are hiring private jets to fly them 
out of a city that no one else who has to buy a consumer seat 
can get anywhere from there. They are absolutely outraged by 
it, and that is why they are organizing. Delta Airlines has 
made twice in billions what the other airlines have made.

    They have written off of the backs of the employees who 
have made that airline successful, and they have not paid the 
same in pay and benefits. And that is why Delta flight 
attendants, Delta mechanics, the Teamsters, and Delta ramp 
agents with the International Association of Machinists are 
organizing right now to try to take back what is theirs.

    As I said before that SkyWest flight attendants have woken 
up to what their airlines have tried to do to pull the wool 
over their eyes, and they contacted us, and we are eager to 
organize. So, we are supporting organizing for over 40,000 
workers right now with our union of just over 50,000 workers.

    These airlines and these other companies are spending 
billions of dollars on union avoidance rather than investing in 
the companies to make them better for the consumer and the and 
the employees--wasting that money.

    But there is another way to go. And Microsoft has decided 
that it is better to sign a union neutrality agreement with the 
union to give the employees the free right to join the union. 
And when a worker comes to a manager to ask them what they 
should know about the union, they are giving the supervisors 
the instruction to tell them, go to the union website.

    That is how it should be done. That is what freedom is and 
that is what it would look like to have a free society and an 
equal society, is to give workers the power to actually bargain 
their fair share.

    The Chair. Thank you.

    Senator Cassidy.

    Senator Cassidy. I am going to defer to Coach Tuberville 
first, but I am going to ask that the two documents that Ms. 
Furchtgott Roth mentioned be added to the--unanimous consent 
that these be added----

    The Chair. Without objection.

    [The following information can be found on page 73 in 
Additional Material:]

    Senator Cassidy. Senator Tuberville.

    Senator Tuberville. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for 
being here today. Mr. Higgins, our economy is in incredibly 
shaky position. Inflation is off the chart, especially after 
COVID. With all the strikes over the last few years, has that 
played an impact on our economy?

    Mr. Higgins. Have the strikes played an----

    Senator Tuberville. Yes.

    Mr. Higgins. I don't know that they have had much of an 
impact as of yet, but certainly the increase in pay is going to 
have--it creates the problem of potential wage price spiral and 
that could--that will increase inflation itself.

    Senator Tuberville. Yes. Mr. O'Brien, we had a hearing not 
too long ago about, we are going to be probably over a million 
truck drivers short in the next five, six, 7 years. What are 
the Teamsters doing in terms of recruiting and planning for 
this in terms of recruiting and training?

    Mr. O'Brien. Well, I think first and foremost, what I 
testified to earlier is very helpful. As a result of us 
settling our record UPS agreement, I think some--at the 
previous hearing there was some numbers put out.

    There were UPS drivers who only made $59,000 per year. That 
is not true. On their own website, they make $162,000 per year. 
So, by us raising industry standards, that will help in the 
recruitment.

    We also have a very robust military training program where 
people come back from the military and we train them and place 
them in companies like ABF, United Parcel Service, T-Force, and 
many other partners that we have as employers.

    I just want to be clear, not every relationship that we 
have with employers is adversarial. We work day and night to 
make sure that we create opportunities so that these companies 
can be successful.

    There are some companies that obviously can't, and we bear 
the brunt of that, but we do work with our partners to make 
sure that we fulfill the needs of this country and keep supply 
chains moving.

    Senator Tuberville. Thank you.

    Mr. O'Brien. Thank you.

    Senator Tuberville. Mr. Fain, the Biden administration's 
prioritizing climate change, we all know that. We have seen it. 
We felt the repercussions from it going to electric vehicles in 
2027 and beyond. Two-thirds of the new vehicles on the road are 
supposed to be EV.

    Going through all those EPA regulations are out of sight. 
So, what is your thoughts on the availability of the union jobs 
and the push to EVs, and the automatic EV industry?

    Mr. Fain. Thank you. I, look, we believe in a green 
economy. We always have been. The UAW has always led the way 
when it comes to environmental issues.

    Senator Tuberville. Does it cut back on jobs? I keep 
hearing that.

    Mr. Fain. It doesn't have to. We, through this contract, we 
didn't just only bargain for battery work. I think what it gets 
lost is there is battery train workers, electric drive, motor 
workers, e-motors, and housing, and covers.

    We negotiated for all those things. But the other thing we 
also did was we negotiated to bring the combustion engine work 
back to some of our plants from Mexico and other areas. And so 
we have to see the direction it goes.

    But we are going to embrace this. We are going to run from 
it. But our biggest concern to all of this is it needs to be a 
just transition in this process where workers aren't left 
behind.

    Senator Tuberville. Is it true that we are building most of 
our combustible engines South of the border now?

    Mr. Fain. Some not most. I mean, we have in the big three, 
I mean, we have several engine plants or transmission plants. 
Some of that has ramped down due to this transition. But we 
secured things in this contract to obviously to, like I said, 
to bring work back and protect on both sides of this.

    Senator Tuberville. Yes. Ms. Nelson, we all fly quite a 
bit. But what is the biggest complaint from flight attendants? 
And don't give me money. I am not talking about money. What is 
the biggest complaint now, where we can get more qualified, 
consistent flight attendants on flights?

    Ms. Nelson. What is very difficult is that today it is 
extremely combative in the cabin, and we have fewer staff than 
we ever have. So, there is fewer flight attendants and 
passengers----

    Senator Tuberville. That is not going to get any better. We 
have got to have people to break up these fights obviously.

    Ms. Nelson. Yes, absolutely. And leadership to encourage 
people to come together and understand that we can actually 
safely get from one place to another without having a brawl is 
very helpful.

    Appreciate leaders around the country talking about unity 
and talking about how we are better off when we work together 
to ensure that safety and security come first. And that people 
can come to work without being fearful of being a punching bag.

    Senator Tuberville. Yes. I think we would all agree too. We 
got to get more people back to work training. I came from the 
education field, get more kids into technical training other 
than going to 4 year school that are not getting anything out 
of, to be able to get a job like most of you supply. So, thank 
you for being here today. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

    Ms. Nelson. Thank you.

    The Chair. Thank you. And we are going to work on an 
apprenticeship program. I think that is vitally important.

    Senator Casey.

    Senator Casey. Mr. Chairman, thanks for having this 
hearing, you and the Ranking Member, and bringing in leaders to 
talk about workers and corporate greed, but also the promise of 
union organizing.

    We are so grateful to be with these leaders. I wanted to 
start with obviously a related issue, and that's what has been 
termed greed-flation. And we just did a report about this last 
week, when major corporations are taking advantage of consumers 
by jacking up prices and blaming inflation just because they 
can without any kind of scrutiny.

    When they jack up those prices, they hurt a lot of 
families. And that is what we are seeing all across the 
country. Here is the reality. Just between 2020 and `21, just 
between those few years, corporate profits rose 75 percent, 
five times the rate of inflation. That is, I think, for so many 
Americans, an abomination when corporate profits are exploding 
by 75 percent, five times faster than inflation.

    When I travel across Pennsylvania, I hear about this every 
single day, whether it is people trying to pay their grocery 
bill or other household or family expenses, and greed-flation 
is impacting our families. This is documented. This isn't some 
theory.

    We can document and we do in the report. And if anything, 
it has elevated the significance of unions and why union 
organizing has never been more important to get just to give a 
worker in his or her family a shot at being able to make ends 
meet because they have the benefit of a union.

    Unions like those that are represented here today are 
critically important in this fight for workers, strengthening 
workers' rights and protections, including the fundamental 
right to organize, which, by the way, is under threat.

    Anyone who thinks just because we had a legislation in 
1935, the National Labor Relations Act, that everything is 
Okay, every day of the week, that right is under threat across 
the country. It is essential, that right to organize is 
essential to building an economy that works for all Americans.

    My first question is, President Fain, not just because you 
have had a couple of successful months with your organizing, 
but I will start with you. As you know from the deal, the 
historic deal that you just negotiated securing wage gains for 
auto workers, the big three are another example of this.

    They have seen record profits and they have given their 
CEOs millions in salaries and bonuses while fighting to deny 
their workers' a raise and keep their car prices high. How has 
corporate greed affected American car prices and worker wages?

    Mr. Fain. [Technical problems]--several things. When you 
talk about corporate profits exploding, I mean, the thing I 
don't want to get lost here is that at the same time they were 
exploding, worker pay was regressing, and conditions were 
regressing.

    I have had-- Mr. Higgins was talking about how increases in 
pay will impact the economy and negatively. This goes back to 
the fear mongering that takes place any time we bargain a good 
contract.

    The next scenario that gets put out there is that the world 
is going to end because working class people make a livable 
wage, and it is going to drive the price of vehicles up. But 
when you talk about what has happened the last 4 years, there 
is a sad irony to me. I didn't hear anything about this.

    Over the last 4 years, the price of vehicles went up 30 to 
35 percent over the last 4 years. It wasn't due to work or pay 
going up. It wasn't due to our benefits changing. It was due to 
one thing corporate greed and consumer price gouging. And that 
is what has got to change in this country.

    That is one thing I have learned throughout this process, 
throughout this bargaining process and throughout my career 
is--I have listened to analysts and people that write up ads 
and things.

    One thing I have learned is that most of these people have 
no clue what the hell is even going on in the work we do. And 
so they might be great professors, great pundits, but at the 
end of the day, I have been at the bargaining table.

    I have lived--I have been on the faculty working on the 
shop floor, working class people matter. And when working class 
people withhold their labor, nothing moves. And that is what 
people need to realize in this country.

    Billionaire class can build all the factories they want, if 
workers refuse to withhold their labor, it will--they won't 
build a thing. And so, that corporate greed and consumer price 
gouging is all behind us.

    Senator Casey. Mr. Chairman, can I just add something for 
the record? If I could ask consent to submit for the record 
this greed-flation report that we released last week.

    The Chair. Without objection.

    [The following information can be found on page 76 in 
Additional Material:]

    The Chair. Senator Cassidy.

    Senator Casey. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

    Senator Cassidy. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a few minutes 
and so I am going to ask you to be brief. Mr. Fain, the 
headline I just came across, Stellantis Offers Buyouts and 
Early Retirement to 6,400 U.S. Nonunion Workers as The Auto 
Industry Hits Turbulence.

    Now, you don't know for sure, but after the very good 
contract you were awarded they are now laying off 6,400 people. 
It seems a little bit like a tube of toothpaste. If you squeeze 
here, it is going to do something down there.

    I think that would be something that Ms. Furchtgott Roth 
would point out. Any thoughts on that? And again, be brief, 
because I have other questions.

    Mr. Fain. [Technical problems]--exactly, good question. I 
think there is 15 billion reasons why----

    The Chair. Yes, all right.

    Mr. Fain. I am sorry?

    The Chair. Talk into the mic, please.

    Mr. Fain. I will give you 12 billion reasons why that 
doesn't have to happen, Okay. When Stellantis took over, they 
went on a price cutting on a labor cost cutting.

    Senator Cassidy. No, but that was about a decade ago. So 
BP----

    Mr. Fain. No, no, no. Stellantis just took over within the 
last 4 years. But when they took over, they went to--they want 
to cut their way to profitability, but they do it on the backs 
of workers, and they don't have to cut those jobs. They chose 
to cut those jobs. Has nothing to do with our contract.

    They made $12 billion in the first 6 months of this year 
and are continuing to make billions as we went through the 
bargaining process. So, again, to me, it is just--it is 
shortsighted goals to recognize profits. And I have heard it 
said over and over by leaders in the past, you can't cut your 
way to profitability.

    That is what--that is a shortsighted way of doing business, 
and it is not sustainable for the long term, so.

    Senator Cassidy. Okay. So, Mr. O'Brien, Yellow Trucking is 
obviously going belly up, it appears. And they had come to the 
Teamsters in June, I am just reading press reports, and asked 
for some help.

    It specifically mentioned you that we are not going to get 
tough attitude is how the paper, the article put it, and now 
they have gone belly up. There are reports that the Teamsters 
came back in August to try and make things better, but by that 
time it was too late.

    Now, there it seems, again, going back to the witnesses, 
Mr. Higgins and Ms. FGR, that this kind of approach brought a 
company under and now we have a lot of Teamsters who are going 
to be unemployed.

    Mr. O'Brien. With all due respect, Dr. Cassidy that is 
inaccurate on the yellow situation.

    This yellow situation has been going on since 2009, where 
our members have given back in concessions with the 
recommendation of the union to try and save this company since 
2009, $5 billion in wages and benefits. And this company was 
awarded under the Trump administration a $700 million----

    Senator Cassidy. Loan----

    Mr. O'Brien. Loan, right. And the company has been 
mismanaged. And they did not come to us in August. They came to 
us early on. We tried to work with them and find solutions to 
the problem.

    All the while, after their initial meetings, they started--
and we found this after the fact. They started draining. They 
told us they would be out of money by August, and that if we 
didn't help them, then they would go under. All the while they 
were taking their executive bonuses, the CEO pays and----

    Senator Cassidy. But in the scheme of things----

    Mr. O'Brien. They can blame anybody they want. That company 
was mismanaged since 2009. There is facts and records to show 
exactly what our members----

    Senator Cassidy. I won't argue about the quality of their 
management. It does seem, though, that as--when I read the 
benefit packages that the drivers got, they would argue that 
they could not afford that.

    But that is their perspective. I am sorry, I just have 
limited time. Ms. Furchtgott-Roth, I remember distinctly that 
Mr. Fain had made comments that the rapid transition to all EV 
vehicles was part of what was contributing to the loss of jobs. 
I saw a cartoon, the green economy will create jobs, 
unfortunately most of them are in China.

    You commented as well on that in your testimony. In 
response to Coach Tuberville, Mr. Fain kind of soft pedaled 
that, but any thoughts on that? In effect, President Biden's 
environmental policies have contributed to some of this loss of 
jobs in the auto industry.

    The Chair. Microphone.

    Ms. Furchtgott Roth. Mr. Fain did say very clearly in April 
of this year, shame on politicians for moving forward to 100 
percent EVs because this is bad for our auto workers' jobs.

    I was especially puzzled why during the negotiations he 
didn't try to get these auto workers to drop their own self-
imposed goal of going all EV by 2035. And Mr. Fain has just 
said that he has got some of the internal combustion engines to 
move back from offshore, but they are not going to be able to 
use them after 2035--at least they say they are not going to be 
able to use them.

    They say they are not going to use them. So why is that? It 
is not under the law. So, he should be able to persuade them 
that his members' jobs are more important, plus what Americans 
want to buy, small businesses, farmers, they all need cars with 
internal combustion engines.

    Senator Cassidy. Mr. O'Brien, the--this is also the--this 
the HELP Committee and the P stands for pensions. And it was 
mentioned earlier, I think by Mr. Higgins, that the Central 
States Pension Fund had received money to help bail out their, 
I think, $36 billion or something like that, to bail out their 
in arrears situation.

    It is my understanding that the roster submitted by the 
Central States Pension Fund had nearly 3,500 dead individuals 
submitted to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. Somebody 
commented it is a little bit like the voting rolls in Chicago.

    But as a result of this, the pension fund was awarded $127 
million in additional bailout money. Now, is the pension fund 
going to refund that to the American people?

    Mr. O'Brien. I would assume it wouldn't. I assume the 
Government would go after that if that is clearly what----

    Senator Cassidy. I think this Administration has made the 
decision that they are not going to. That is this kind of 
administration, that decision. That is actually not kind of a 
taxpayer type decision.

    Mr. O'Brien. Look, I will go on record as saying if someone 
was given something they weren't entitled to, they should 
refund it.

    Senator Cassidy. Sounds great. Can I quickly on Mr. 
Higgins--Mr. Higgins, you mentioned the joint employer rule is 
a boon to employees.

    I think my understanding is if you got--if you have a 
Subway and you have got seven employees, and four of them vote 
to unionize, that young entrepreneur or that person of color 
who has got their first business has to unionize, and of 
course, with increased cost and hassle.

    Any quick comment on that, because the Chair is being 
indulgent, but still. Quick comments?

    Mr. Higgins. Well, as far as the joint employer goes, it 
doesn't directly impact unionization itself. But in terms of it 
does--it sort of bleed back toward the corporate parent.

    That is, I believe, the intent here. If you are organizing, 
you have to organize, and the franchisees, you have to organize 
them piecemeal by one by one. But if the franchisor is the--
considered the joint employer for all of its franchisees, then 
you can simply direct your campaign at the franchise or a 
corporation and it--and do it that way.

    I believe that is the sort of underlying impetus.

    The Chair. Senator Baldwin.

    Senator Baldwin. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to begin 
by recognizing the incredible leadership of the three union 
leaders before us today, from winning historic gains at UPS and 
the big three, to protecting airline workers during the COVID 
pandemic. You have really served your members quite ably.

    Despite these bright spots, it has been a tough year for 
union workers in Wisconsin. President O'Brien, when you came 
before this Committee earlier this year, I asked you about the 
announced closures of two Energizer battery plants in 
Wisconsin. These facilities in Fennimore and Portage were 
formerly Rayovac facilities.

    Rayovac was an iconic Wisconsin company. These workers 
represented by the Teamsters, and by the way, I had a chance to 
visit with some of them just a few weeks ago in Fennimore. When 
Rayovac was acquired by Energizer in 2018, the Federal Trade 
Commission shocked investors when it appeared to really 
rubberstamp that merger with no conditions attached.

    By the way, that same merger was treated very differently 
by regulators in Europe. After the approval, consumers began 
paying higher prices for batteries, not lower. And nearly 600 
Wisconsin union members stand to lose their jobs as the company 
moves those jobs to Singapore and North Carolina, both 
facilities, without represented union labor.

    I have urged the Federal Trade Commission to actually 
retroactively review that merger approval. I have asked them on 
two occasions, so far without any luck. Then in July in 
Wisconsin, Master Lock announced that it would close its 
Wisconsin plant, which has operated in downtown Milwaukee for 
nearly 100 years.

    Shortly after its parent company acquired a lock business 
from a competitor, the company decided to move 400 jobs, 330 of 
which are UAW members, to Mexico and to China. We have seen 
this playbook in Wisconsin before, and so I am currently 
working on legislation that would require the Federal Trade 
Commission to consider the impact of mergers on workers, in 
addition to the other considerations, because the workers are 
the ones who bear the brunt of the ``efficiencies'' found after 
a consolidation.

    I am really tired of seeing our high wage union jobs in 
Wisconsin go to nonunion states or abroad. These companies hire 
consultants who see cutting union jobs as the way to increase 
their margins, but I see it as cutting off your nose to spite 
your face.

    The truth is that unions provide the security and wages 
necessary for workers to develop skills, expertise, and 
institutional knowledge that are the bedrock of innovation and 
growth. But too many in corporate America are not interested in 
innovation or growth anymore.

    Many large companies only want to look at the very short 
term quarterly capitalism, extract value, cut wages, close 
facilities, and increase buybacks all to enrich themselves and 
their investors.

    It is a big question with very little time left for the 
three of you, but how can we change the culture of corporate 
America to get these companies to see their union workforces as 
an asset to be grown instead of a cost to be cut?

    The Chair. Senator Baldwin is right. Very little time. Be 
very brief with your answers, please.

    Mr. Fain. Well first, I mean, when 26 billionaires have as 
much wealth as half of humanity, we have a crisis in this 
world. I don't see these things--with the Master Lock 
situation, I don't see it as any effort of efficiencies.

    I am going to call it what it is. It is corporate greed at 
the expense of working class people. It is driving a race to 
the bottom. We have to want better for this country. I don't 
care what party someone is.

    If you truly believe that paying someone poverty wages is 
the pathway to a successful nation and a successful economy, I 
don't know what you are smoking. So we have to have a just 
transition initiative.

    We have to look at workers' wages and benefits, and we have 
got to stop the race to the bottom.

    Senator Baldwin. Thank you.

    Mr. O'Brien.

    Mr. O'Brien. --[technical problems]--in that situation you 
describe with Energizer, those jobs are gone. They are not 
coming back.

    Right now, you have 600 people that have had long term 
careers there, who have raised families, put kids through 
college, and were depending upon retiring out of there. They 
are working under a severance agreement, so those jobs are 
gone.

    I think to sum it up quickly, we need more oversight over 
these mergers to make sure that, first off, we keep these jobs 
in America. But more importantly, we have got to mitigate any 
type of damages or attacks on these workers for their ability 
to join a union as well.

    I mean, they are going to go to North Carolina, which is 
right to work. And it is proven that the medium average wage in 
right to work states are far less than the non-right to work 
states. So, we have got to have more oversight on these mergers 
and acquisitions.

    Ms. Nelson. I agree with you completely on everything that 
you said, Senator Baldwin. And we do need a better look at the 
impact of mergers on workers.

    In fact, actually, there has not really been a look at the 
impact on workers in the Jet Blue, Spirit merger, which is 
actually going to improve jobs and increase competition in the 
airline industry, giving one more airline at the highest level, 
competition with the others to drive those jobs to better 
standards and also to give consumers better choice.

    We need to have that. But we also need to have constraints 
on stock buybacks, and we need to move away from this idea of 
the quarterly earnings, because even the best CEOs that I have 
worked with who have wanted to run a very good company have 
been forced by the people who own the company--they are no 
longer the decision makers.

    They are driven to send more and more money to Wall Street 
rather than investing in the company, investing in the workers, 
and investing in what is going to be good for the consumers. 
So, we have to remember that a rising tide lifts all boats, but 
the working class is the tide, and that is what we have to 
focus on.

    The Chair. Thank you.

    Senator Mullin.

    Senator Mullin. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just to get a 
little factual on what Mr. O'Brien just said about right to 
work states versus forced to work states.

    According to the compensation data report of the U.S. 
Commerce Department, an average salary for private sector 
employee in 2019 was $4,000 higher than the average employee in 
forced union states, stating that right to work states pay 
more.

    Now, if we also want to break this down to statistics which 
were quoted earlier by Mr. O'Brien about wage differences, if 
you talk to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in nonunion jobs, 
their average salaries raised 14.6 percent compared to 11 
percent wage increase on unionized workers from 2020 to 2023.

    If you go back to the percentage of union workers, because 
if unions was working so well, then you would see an increase 
in union jobs, not a decrease. 50 years ago, 33 percent of our 
labor force was union.

    Today, it is 10.1 percent. If you go back and you start 
looking at wage earned, if you actually compare comparable 
wages to ages, not a partisan point, but you go to all wages 
earned, not just comparing 16 and over to 54 to 64 year old 
ages, you will see that the actual average, according to the 
Bureau of Labor Statistics, that if you subtract the union 
dues, it is actually higher nonunion employees are getting 
paid, by roughly 1 or 2 percent, which is exactly what union 
dues are, is 1 to 2 percent of their salary.

    I just wanted to set the record straight on that. And that 
is coming from statistics, all right. Now, let's talk about Mr. 
O'Brien himself, his behavior. As everybody knows in this 
hearing, the last time him and I kind of had a back and forth.

    Appreciate your demeanor today. It is quite different. But 
after you left here, you got pretty excited about the keyboard. 
In fact, you tweeted at me, one, two, three, four, five times. 
And let me read what the last one said, it said, ``Greedy CEO 
who pretends like he is self-made.''

    Sir, I wish you were in the truck with me when I was 
building my plumbing company myself and my wife was running the 
office, because I sure remember working pretty hard and long 
hours.

    ``Pretends like he is self-made. What a clown. Fraud. 
Always has been, always will be. Quit the tough guy act in 
these Senate hearings. You know where to find me. Any place, 
any time, cowboy.'' Sir, this is the time, this is a place. You 
want to run your mouth. We can be two consenting adults. We can 
finish it here.

    Mr. O'Brien. Okay, that is fine. Perfect.

    Senator Mullin. You want to do it now?

    Mr. O'Brien. I would love to do it right now.

    Senator Mullin. Well, stand your butt up, then.

    Mr. O'Brien. You stand your butt up.

    The Chair. Hold on--no, hold--stop it. No, no, sit down. 
You are a United States Senator. Sit down, please. Hold it. 
Hold it. If we can't--no, I have the mic. I am sorry.

    Senator Mullin. This is what he said.

    The Chair. Hold it. You will have your time.

    Senator Mullin. Okay.

    Mr. O'Brien. Can I respond?

    The Chair. No, you can't. This is a hearing, and God knows 
the American people have enough contempt for Congress. Let's 
stop----

    Senator Mullin. I don't like----

    The Chair. You are--[Technical problems.]

    Mr. O'Brien. I don't like you because you described 
yourself.

    The Chair. Hold it. Hold it. You have the mic. You have 
time.

    Senator Mullin. All right----

    The Chair. Make your statement.

    Senator Mullin. All right. Then let's do this, because I 
did challenge you, and I accepted your challenge. And you went 
quiet.

    Mr. O'Brien. No, I didn't go quiet. I was--you challenged 
me to a cage match, acting like a 12 year old----

    The Chair. Excuse me. Hold it. No, excuse me----

    Senator Mullin. I will say exactly----

    The Chair. Senator Mullin, I have the mic. You have 
questions on any economic issues, anything to say, go for it. 
When I hear the talk about physical abuse----

    Senator Mullin. You brought----

    The Chair. We are not here to talk about physical abuse----

    Senator Mullin. Let me--let me show you this hearing 
because I want to expose this thug to who he is. And----

    Mr. O'Brien. Do not point at me. That is disrespectful.

    Senator Mullin. I don't care about respecting you at all--
--

    Mr. O'Brien. I don't respect you at all.

    Senator Mullin. Let me----

    The Chair. Hold it, hold it. No. [Technical problems.] 
Please, please----

    Senator Mullin. Alright.

    The Chair. This is a--excuse me----

    Senator Mullin. Mm-hmm.

    The Chair. This is a hearing to discuss economic issues, 
alright?

    Senator Mullin. I am quoting exactly what he said.

    The Chair. You can say what you want.

    Senator Mullin. This is your witness you have brought.

    The Chair. This is my witness.

    Senator Mullin. Let me--I am exposing him.

    The Chair. You can expose anything you want--no fight----

    Senator Mullin. In 2013--in 2013, O'Brien was suspended by 
the Teamsters for intimidating your own members. In 2014, you 
were part of what would you say, organizing the harassment, 
intimidation of the Top Shelf crew----

    Mr. O'Brien. Chef not shelf----

    Senator Mullin. Oh, the Top Chef, Okay. And then and I 
think in the reports it said, sexual, racist, and homophobic 
slurs, and death threats, 14 tires were sliced, and 5 Teamsters 
were arrested. And you said, well, I had nothing to do with it.

    But however, in that same statement, you said, but if I get 
called to testify, I will plead the fifth. This is what--this 
is the witness you brought in here. In 2017, you were removed 
as lead negotiator by then President Hoffa for UPS for your 
actions.

    Then at '22, when this guy was elected, what he said after 
he got elected was he wanted to bring the mob mentality back to 
the Teamsters. This is your guy.

    The Chair. You are obviously going to give him a chance to 
respond to your questions----

    Senator Mullin. Absolutely. Absolutely. Because this is my 
question, because you called me out, I didn't call you out.

    Mr. O'Brien. Yes, you did.

    Senator Mullin. You said any time, any place.

    Mr. O'Brien. That is--let's get the record straight.

    Senator Mullin. Okay, hold it--hold on----

    The Chair. Hold it. Senator Mullin, do you have a question 
for the witness.

    Senator Mullin. Yes.

    The Chair. Okay, let's hear it.

    Senator Mullin. Any time, any place----

    The Chair. No, that is not----

    Senator Mullin. April is a charity event----

    The Chair. No, that is not--that is not. No, no----

    Senator Mullin. He, sir, he said it, and this is----

    The Chair. He is here to--no----

    Senator Mullin. [Technical problems]--on what questions can 
or cannot be asked? Now, I will ask him----

    The Chair. No, you are not--we are not going to be talking 
about physical confrontation.

    Senator Mullin. Oh, this is about charity. For a union 
charity, because this the firefighters'----

    The Chair. This is--you have a question on his--?

    Senator Mullin. April----

    Mr. O'Brien. Grow up----[Technical problems.]

    The Chair. Do you have a question on his--let's not be----

    Senator Mullin. You said it.

    Mr. O'Brien. You are an embarrassment. You are an 
embarrassment.

    Senator Mullin. I am just simply answering it.

    [Technical problems.]

    The Chair. Hold it, hold it.

    Mr. O'Brien. You reach out to me, buddy.

    The Chair. Hold it. Senator Mullin, you made some charges.

    Senator Mullin. Charges?

    The Chair. Mr. O'Brien, do you want to respond to his 
questions?

    Senator Mullin. Yes, go ahead, please.

    Mr. O'Brien. Yes, I mean, look, the reality of it is----

    Senator Mullin. Accept my challenge----

    Mr. O'Brien. Mr. Mulling--tough guy.

    The Chair. Answer--hold it. Answer the questions. Please.

    Mr. O'Brien. One--in fact, he made a lot of statements, 
right. And his statements are fiction, at best.

    Senator Mullin. Fiction? I read them.

    Mr. O'Brien. [Mocking noises]--what?

    The Chair. Answer the question, please.

    Mr. O'Brien. I can't understand him, to be honest with you.

    The Chair. All right.

    Mr. O'Brien. He rambles so much. What was your question, 
actually?

    Senator Mullin. Oh, you said I made a lot of statements.

    Mr. O'Brien. No, but what is your question? I don't 
understand the question. Could you repeat it?

    Senator Mullin. You said any time, any place.

    Mr. O'Brien. What's your question?

    Senator Mullin. Accept the challenge.

    Mr. O'Brien. What challenge?

    Senator Mullin. You said, any time, any place. I am 
accepting yours, so why don't you come back----

    Mr. O'Brien. What challenge? What challenge are you talking 
about?

    Senator Mullin. April 30th. How about we do it for charity 
at the Smoking Guns in Tulsa, Oklahoma?

    The Chair. No, we are not going to be talking about 
physical confrontations here.

    Mr. O'Brien. You want to fight me?

    Senator Mullin. What do you say by any time, any place?

    Mr. O'Brien. Let's have coffee, discuss our differences.

    Senator Mullin. Oh, that is what you said.

    Mr. O'Brien. That is right. Exactly.

    Senator Mullin. All right, well, let's--have coffee.

    Mr. O'Brien. Let's do it.

    Senator Mullin. I would love to.

    Mr. O'Brien. I would love to----

    Senator Mullin. It is funny how you are backing out of----

    Mr. O'Brien. I don't back on anything.

    Senator Mullin. You did.

    Mr. O'Brien. You are the one. You are 100--should be the 
most influential people in this country making changes. You are 
focused on--you are focused on a debate that is not relevant.

    Senator Mullin. You keep texting me----

    Mr. O'Brien. You are an embarrassment----

    [Technical problems.]

    The Chair. This hearing is about the condition of the 
working class in America. That is why we are----

    Senator Mullin [continuing]. A thug----

    Mr. O'Brien. You are the biggest thug here.

    Senator Mullin. You brought him here.

    The Chair. All right----

    Mr. O'Brien. You are the biggest thug. Even your colleagues 
call you a----

    The Chair. [Technical problems] I don't know why you do 
what you are doing.

    Senator Hassan.

    Senator Hassan. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair----

    The Chair. Senator Hassan----

    Senator Hassan. Senator Mullin, please yield. I have been 
recognized by the Chair.

    Mr. O'Brien. Back to the corner.

    Senator Hassan. All right, now----

    The Chair. The floor is yours.

    Senator Hassan. Chairman Sanders, I want to thank you for 
this hearing. I want to thank Ranking Member Cassidy, too, for 
participating in it.

    I want to thank all of our witnesses for being here today. 
It is really a great time to be able to be with all of you and 
to be here with union leaders to discuss the important role 
that unions play in improving the lives of working families in 
New Hampshire and all across the country. I have three 
questions.

    I would like to get through all three. I want to start with 
you, Mr. Fain. You talked in your opening remarks about the 
historic gains that the United Auto Workers have recently 
achieved. And I understand, and you mentioned, that soon after 
the agreements were announced, other automakers have boosted 
their employees' hourly wages and benefits.

    Can you just talk a little bit, and try to keep it to 30 
seconds to a minute, about how union successes lead to improved 
conditions for all workers?

    Mr. Fain. Yes. Thank you for that. I think this goes back 
to Mr. Mullin's previous comment about talking--I think he 
was--I respectfully disagree with his comment about that--in 
right to work states, workers make more money. And I think this 
is a prime example. We bargain our greatest contract in our 
history, the richest contract in our history, where it will 
change lives.

    We set that standard. And immediately you saw Toyota, 
Honda, and now Hyundai changing their conditions, raising pay 
for their workers ,and shortening the progression to get the 
full pay from 8 years to 4 years, from 6 years to 3 years. And 
we did the same thing from 8 years to 3 years.

    Obviously that is a direct result of the impact of what we 
bargained for. And I think it even goes a step further. I think 
during the COVID pandemic, I think people had to really reflect 
on what is important in life. And it is not working 7 days a 
week, 12 and 16 hours a day, working multiple jobs.

    People want some semblance of a life, and they shouldn't 
have to work that much to make a living. That is what we should 
focus on in this country. And I think people see that and 
people want to be a part of that.

    Senator Hassan. Right. People should be able to know what 
their hours are, work hard during those hours, but then go to 
their kid's little league games and take care of their elderly 
parents, and shovel their neighbors' walkway.

    Mr. Fain. Life--work, life balance issue. That is--we talk 
a lot about that, yes.

    Senator Hassan. Yes. Thank you very much. Mr. O'Brien, 
workers' safety should be a priority for all businesses, yet 
unions still have to fight for basic worker protections. Our 
Country saw some of the hottest temperatures ever recorded this 
summer.

    Many cities experienced extended periods well over 100 
degrees. This puts employees working outdoors at serious health 
risk if temperature controlled areas or adequate break times 
aren't provided.

    However, during this same period, the Teamsters had to 
fight to secure air conditioning in delivery trucks during 
their negotiations with UPS. Mr. O'Brien, beyond the health and 
safety implications, how does lack of access to basic 
protections impact worker morale and worker productivity?

    Mr. O'Brien. Well, I think it is, the best example is what 
is happening at Amazon right now. You have a--have a company 
that has the most OSHA violations, that have to deal with 
egress issues over heat conditions where people are passing 
out, some are dying on the jobs.

    That is the beauty of having a collective bargaining 
agreement that we have with UPS. There are mandates and plans 
in place to put air conditioning in the vehicles, make sure 
that the buildings that they are working in the warehouses are 
properly ventilated, make certain that we have safety 
committees that are part of the collective bargaining 
agreement--that mandate and monitor, and UPS is a fine example 
where we have the least amount of OSHA reportable accidents 
because we do have those checks and balances in place that 
protect our workers. It is not just a union versus nonunion 
issue.

    We think that everybody--we set the standard in this last 
agreement where we think every employer should adopt the 
policies and procedures that we were able to negotiate in this 
industry.

    Senator Hassan. Right. And it improves worker morale if 
they know that they will have a--they will be safe in the 
workplace and that their health will be considered.

    Mr. O'Brien. Well, I think if you go to a workplace that is 
going to protect you and be safe, then you can have a long term 
career there where your employer actually does care about you.

    Senator Hassan. Right. One more question for you, Mr. Fain. 
Investments in workers and their families pay off for 
businesses. Businesses that provide paid family and medical 
leave, for instance, are able to better attract people to the 
workforce and reduce turnover, which saves them time and money.

    Mr. Fain, some paid leave benefits were included in the 
contracts that your recent--that your union recently 
negotiated. How will workers access to guaranteed paid leave 
impact the stability and success of the companies that they 
work for?

    Mr. O'Brien. Well, we made--we got a lot of flak a lot of 
laughed at, mocked for some of the demands we put on the table, 
the 32 hour workweek being one of them.

    All this gets back to us having work, life balance. And 
paid leave was a big issue. In the birth of a child or adoption 
or certain situations like that people need time to adjust to 
that. And that is something we don't talk about a lot publicly 
now.

    But these are all work, life balance issues. To me, it goes 
back to mental health issues. Also, when people are working 
themselves to death 7 days a week, when they are working 
multiple jobs, scraping to get by paycheck to paycheck, this 
affects the mental health of our society, and I think that is 
why we see such an increase.

    We have an obligation to give people adequate time to do 
those things. I mean, when you have a child, it is one of the 
greatest moments. I have two daughters. I mean, literally when 
both my daughters were born, I cried for a half hour. I mean, 
it is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

    Senator Hassan. Yes.

    Mr. Fain. I had to take vacation to spend time. But so I 
think it is a great benefit, and management does that--
management already had that benefit. It was just basically 
giving our workers the right that the managers of the plant 
enjoy.

    Senator Hassan. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

    The Chair. Senator Braun.

    Senator Braun. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have had these 
discussions before. I come from the world of full competition, 
transparency the things that classic markets are made of and 
engage consumer.

    In so many instances, that is not the case anymore. You 
have got huge mega corporations, many of them multinationals. 
And we have had this discussion. I know Mr. O'Brien and I have 
had that, that is where you have got to have some 
counterweight. You have got to have a voice for employees.

    When I hear stories of a CEO in a public company making 100 
times the wage of the average employee, yes and thumbs went up 
to even more, I am going to say a figure much lower than that 
would not be the case in almost all small businesses, any 
business that is being held in check by true markets.

    I come from a place where you are lucky to grow up in a 
community where you couldn't tell the difference between blue 
and white collar. Many of my employees were blue collar folks 
that ended up working their way up into management.

    But I made this statement too. If you pay good wages and 
good benefits, you guys are probably not even needed because 
employees would choose probably not to even go there. Where I 
want to go is when it comes to the small business owner, most 
of whom make a living out of that small business.

    To me, it is harder than just working for someone. It is in 
that same category, though. Your family is living off of it and 
you got to have a living wage, or you have to have a return on 
that business. And when it comes to union efforts that may be 
focused on the gig economy, small business, franchisees, which 
is where a lot of people get their start, almost none of them 
want any help.

    Do you feel, and I would like to start with Mr. Fain, Mr. 
O'Brien, and Ms. Nelson, is your opinion that is not the 
bailiwick of what you are interested in? Isn't there plenty to 
do where you have that disproportionate difference between 
employ and huge public companies that have a different 
characteristic from what I am describing?

    Does that mean you should lay off of that area and focus on 
where the need is most? Mr. Fain, would you start?

    Mr. Fain. Thank you, Senator Braun. I think when you talk 
about competition, I understand. I just, competition to me, is 
a code for a race to the bottom and always has been because we 
simply find the lowest bidder.

    But in what you are talking about with pay and benefits, I 
understand how that is being framed. But there is one thing 
that you didn't talk about, and that to me is why unions are 
really imperative, and that is a voice.

    It gets lost in the shuffle a lot of times. But when you 
are an employee at will, you can be fired for any reason or no 
reason at all. That can't happen with a union. And so you can 
have an opinion. You can have a grievance. And you can raise 
those grievances.

    Senator Braun. But do you think that is applicable at the 
level of small business in places that are there, scrapping at 
the lower end of the economy where they want that autonomy, and 
where in my observation, they generally are paying their 
employees more than they are making anyway.

    I am not disputing. I am acknowledging that there is a 
place against super mega-corporations. But then I look at the 
PRO Act, which has got features where it looks like it tries to 
get into an area where I don't think there is a need. Give a 
brief response to that, and then I want to hear the other two.

    Mr. Fain. Small businesses, I don't like to take--my 
daughter as a dental hygienist. I mean, and I have seen one 
cut--one dental firm she worked for that kept cutting her wage, 
cutting her pay and, they have no repercussions.

    They can either quit and go somewhere else or just deal 
with it. And so I do believe that there are things that apply 
in small business as much as it does larger corporations. 
Naturally, larger corporations have very different 
circumstances.

    But I think people still need those protections. People 
work for dignity, and every job deserves to have dignity----

    Senator Braun. Before I run out of time, Mr. O'Brien.

    Mr. O'Brien. Yes. So, I just want to give you a brief 
history. I come out of rank and file small business, and we 
negotiate with big corporations nationwide on behalf of 1.3 
million members.

    We negotiate on small white papers, small businesses. And 
to your point, there is a difference between both. The one goal 
that we always look to achieve is to negotiate a contract, 
especially on the small business side of the smaller employers, 
that is obviously sustainable for them, but also rewarding for 
our members.

    When you are going into these negotiations--and I come out 
of a family owned business where I worked for a great family 
that were just as hungry to be successful as we were, and they 
work just as hard.

    Those are the people we don't want to hurt. Those are the 
people who we want to try and help. And we have helped, and we 
continue to help.

    Senator Braun. Thank you for that distinction.

    Ms. Nelson.

    Ms. Nelson. Yes. Thank you so much for the question, 
because, of course, we do need to put the check on this massive 
chasm between those who are in the corporate class and those 
who are in the working class.

    But in those situations, what the PRO Act is trying to do 
is to make sure that every single person in this country has 
the right to join a union. In many of these small businesses, 
sometimes the reasons that people are choosing to unionize has 
to do with sexual harassment, safety in the workplace.

    Having that voice, like President Fain said, is critically 
important. And where people are running a good business and 
they have that dialog with their employees already, that may 
not be happening.

    But the right for anyone to join a union and create that in 
the workplace, and actually create a better situation for those 
employers who may not be getting those issues to their desk--
they may not be hearing about the issues of sexual harassment 
and bullying in the workplace, but through the union there is 
that protection to bring that forward, deal with those issues, 
and oftentimes resolve that and keep that out of litigation, 
which is going to be helpful to those businesses, too. So, I 
just give you one other reason why it can be very advantageous.

    Senator Braun. Thank you.

    The Chair. Thank you.

    Senator Smith.

    Senator Smith. Thank you very much. Thank you to all of 
you.

    I really appreciate what you just said, Ms. Nelson. I think 
that really captures a lot of what is happening here. So last 
month, I went to Hudson, Wisconsin, the home of Senator 
Baldwin, to walk the picket line with Local 722 of the United 
Auto Workers while they are on strike.

    About half of those workers in Hudson are from Minnesota. 
And, I won't forget I talked to one of your members, Mr. Fain, 
who told me as he was there how worried he was that the big 
three CEOs were just going to wait him out--just hunker down 
and wait them out. But then he said it is scary, but sometimes 
you have to stand up for what you believe in, for what you know 
is right.

    It is not right that these companies are making billions of 
dollars in profit while the people whose labor is producing 
that profit can't even afford to buy one of the cars that they 
make.

    It seems to me that what hurts our economy is the 
concentrations of power and wealth. That means that only a 
handful of people are doing well, while regular middle class 
people are struggling to pay for childcare and maybe buy a 
house or take a vacation, which is something that everybody 
wants to do.

    For me, these fights are about taking on this imbalance in 
power that exists in our economy. And so, my question to all 
three of you is why do you think that your members and your 
unions were ready to take on this fight right now? Why is this 
the moment?

    For years, Americans have been dealing with this imbalance 
of power and struggling, watching the rich get richer while 
everybody else is just trying to figure out how to hold it 
together. Why do you think this has been the moment?

    Mr. Fain. Thank you. It is a great question. And as one 
thing I want to I guess elaborate more deeply on contrary to 
the thug label that some people like to put on us, I want to be 
clear about this, we want businesses to succeed.

    Senator Smith. Right.

    Mr. Fain. It does us no good to kill a business that 
doesn't do our members any good. It doesn't do--it doesn't do 
it for jobs. We want business to succeed, but it can't--we are 
not going to let it succeed at the expense of the worker.

    That is the problem globally and in this country, is there 
is such a giant chasm between rich and working class now, and 
it has got to change. So we, I think our members, everything we 
have done resonated well with them this time, just from the 
fact that not just UAW members, not just union members, working 
class people in this country, in this world are fed up.

    They are fed up with falling further and further behind, 
scraping to get by. And the dollar is not going anywhere as far 
as it used to go. And conditions just keep getting worse. So, I 
think we ran a contract campaign to get our members engaged on 
the issues and to make sure everyone understood what the battle 
was, and we were very transparent with our communication 
throughout this process, something I think our leadership 
hasn't done in the past.

    We gave weekly updates to the membership and not just the 
membership, the whole world.

    Senator Smith. It seems to me you were really building a 
strong collaboration with your members. This wasn't a--I mean, 
this was not a top down kind of a thing. It was a grassroots 
sort of thing.

    Mr. Fain. It is a member driven----

    Senator Smith. Right.

    Mr. Fain. The one thing we wanted to change--when I took 
over as President was I wanted this to be a member driven 
union, not a top down oligarchy, where I just bark orders and 
beg people to follow. The members are who run this union now, 
and that is how a union should be.

    Senator Smith. Would Mr. O'Brien and Ms. Nelson like to--
you are in a different, slightly different place, Ms. Nelson, 
but why do you think this moment is sort of the moment that is 
galvanizing this organizing and this change?

    Mr. O'Brien. Well, I think speaking for the Teamsters 
Union, we represent 1.3 million members that are airline pilots 
to zookeepers and everything in between. So, we have a very 
diverse membership.

    The one thing that I think has promoted organizing and 
promoted a thirst to be represented is during the pandemic, the 
majority of my members were all deemed essential workers.

    They were providing goods and services to this country, 
whether it was delivering parcels, whether it was making sure 
that food was distributed out of warehouses and delivered by 
trucks, making sure rubbish was picked up, making sure that the 
hospitals or everything else was clean.

    Senator Smith. They were making sure everything held 
together.

    Mr. O'Brien. I think in light of all the essential services 
our members provided, the one thing that was clear with all 
CEOs and with corporations where they were thriving during the 
pandemic. Their bottom line on their balance sheet kept 
expanding, and expanding, expanding.

    I think our members obviously not naive to the fact on how 
much these corporations are making--

    Senator Smith. They can see it.

    Mr. O'Brien. [continuing].--Wanted to be rewarded for their 
hard work, rewarded for putting their lives in jeopardy.

    Some lost their lives, putting their families in jeopardy, 
sacrificing time at home to make sure that we provide a supply 
chain and essential goods and services to this country. So, I 
think that is one of the reasons why there is such an appetite 
and thirst to take a piece of that pie, so to speak.

    Senator Smith. Ms. Nelson, really quickly, before Chair 
Sanders gavels us both. Why do you think this is the moment for 
flight attendants and the people that you represent?

    Ms. Nelson. Yes. Flight attendants often are the tip of the 
spear of anything happening socially or politically in this 
country.

    What we saw was people coming on to our planes before the 
pandemic and walking through first class where the bigger seats 
are, and then walking to the next set of economy seats that 
maybe have more room.

    As they get further and further back, their knees are up at 
their chin and there is no room for their back. You might be 
lucky if you get to sit your way around in the plane. So, we 
saw that the entire American public was really experiencing 
this very shared experience across industries about the way 
that the productivity had been moved to Wall Street, that more 
and more of people's time was being taken from them, that they 
can't make ends meet, that they can't travel to their place of 
work.

    Then the pandemic came. And what they saw was that workers 
on the front lines were not only seen as a line item, they were 
seen as disposable. And this next generation hears that Social 
Security is going to be taken away from them. Any sort of 
protections are going to be taken away from them.

    We are not making good on our promises. People are 
understanding that they can't--that the only way that they can 
fight back. The only way that they can fight for the American 
dream is to join together in unions and take that power and 
take it right to where the decision makers are, which is at the 
corporations who are controlling our politics because money is 
controlling our politics. Now, that's why we are where we are.

    Senator Smith. Thank you very much.

    The Chair. Thank you.

    Senator Hickenlooper.

    Senator Hickenlooper. Thank you, Mr. Chair and Ranking 
Member. I appreciate the hearing, the opportunity to hear both 
sides of the argument.

    I want to say, Ms. Nelson, in case I don't get back to, 
when I was Governor, I think one of the reasons we were 
successful--I hired a woman named Ellen Golombek, who came in 
as the head--my Secretary of Labor, and she had been a flight 
attendant and organized flight attendants.

    Her impact on the other leadership of our state was 
profound. In other words, she had a different way of resolving 
differences. And I have utmost respect for Mr. O'Brien, Mr. 
Fain, but I do think that sometimes having more women in 
organized labor is beneficial.

    Ms. Nelson. We de-escalate and we lead. We don't challenge 
to cage matches. That is exactly right.

    Senator Hickenlooper. Now, now, now.

    [Laughter.]

    Senator Hickenlooper. Let me--Mr. Fain, let me start with 
you. The Economic Policy Institute found that as union 
membership has declined, there has been a corresponding rise in 
income inequality.

    Since the announcement of UAW tentative agreement with the 
big three, Toyota, Honda have all--Toyota, Honda, and others 
have subsequently announced wage increases for their workers.

    Union advocates have always, of course, advocate for their 
members, but that has been made a couple of times already 
today, that this is a benefit that non-unionized workforces 
receive as well.

    In addition to the wage increases, what are some of the 
other benefits that you expect to see for non-unionized workers 
following the recent tentative agreement? Did I make myself 
clear?

    Mr. Fain. Well, I mean, wage increases are one thing, but I 
mean, obviously, there is a lot of things we bargained for. I 
mean, health and safety standards. You look at with the EV 
industry alone, there are chemicals that aren't regulated yet 
that we know we are still working on.

    When you have a union involved in that, there is a means 
for--we have safety committees that actually work on those 
things. So, safety is always a big issue. Work, life balance 
issues, just as we talked about, paid leave for employees with 
a birth or adoption of a child.

    I mean there is several things, but we go on and on about--
but it really comes down to I think, when you look at the wage 
bump right away that, what we call the UAW bump, I mean, I 
think it is just predominantly people go to work to try to 
sustain a living.

    I think we focus a lot on the wages, and I think it gets a 
lot of focus. I think that is the immediate concern of these 
three companies, Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai right away was to 
raise wages because it is the quickest thing that is visible 
that will hopefully, in their opinion, discourage members from 
wanting to become part of a union, but----

    Senator Hickenlooper. Absolutely, no, I couldn't agree 
more. And I think that bump is profound for so many people's 
lives, and we have heard about that from a different--a number 
of different speakers.

    The electrification and that transition to decarbonize the 
transportation economy, this is a global trend. And we have had 
witnesses speak on these hearings before. They talk about once 
people drive an electric vehicle, they don't want to go back, 
and this is going to be driven by consumers.

    Now, issues around cost certainly are relevant. The--in any 
new transition to a new economy, usually there are price 
differentials that we try to smooth over. As we transition to 
electric vehicles, unions are importantly negotiating deals 
that help balance the emerging technologies with job retention.

    Obviously there is going to be some efficiencies here. Your 
tentative agreement included new commitments to ensure existing 
manufacturing plant workers can transition into the electric 
workforce.

    Can you talk a little bit about how you approached 
negotiating that tentative deal of balancing the EV goals--I 
mean, climate change is real. I am not sure that we have had 
too many witnesses here that don't believe it is a real issue.

    Figuring out how to get to a decarbonized economy is going 
to be critical. How do you look at protecting the workers' 
rights as we make that transition?

    Mr. Fain. Yes. I mean, our main concern going into this was 
the fact that we knew--[technical problems]--yes, our main 
concern going into this was we knew that this was on the 
horizon, and it was coming fast. So naturally, we talked about 
it a lot, a just transition.

    We, no matter how this goes, no matter what the timing is 
on it, we want to make sure--and in just in the UAW alone, in 
the big three, 20 percent of the workforce is in powertrain 
work, which is making engines, transmissions that drive the 
vehicles. If that work does taper off naturally and batteries 
take that place and drive motors and things like that, we want 
to get a big piece of that.

    That there is a transition where workers aren't left 
behind. So, we bargained for language to give our members flow 
rates into those jobs in the event that is happening.

    That is how--to me, that is what a just transition is. It 
is not leaving people behind, but also new people that hire 
into those plants, that they won't work for poverty wages, 
which was the case in Baltimore--when I was elected President. 
We changed that now.

    Senator Hickenlooper. I couldn't agree more. And I think 
that is going to be a big challenge for everybody, for both 
sides of every issue, for Republicans and Democrats, to figure 
out, as we do go through this great transition, which is real, 
and most of us think it has to happen, how do we do that in 
such a way that the friction and the turbulence of the loss is 
minimized for the people that do the work.

    Mr. Fain. Yes.

    Senator Hickenlooper. Anyway, thank you. I got to go 
preside, so I yield back to floor. Sorry to run off.

    The Chair. Senator Markey.

    Senator Markey. Thank you, Senator Sanders. Thank you, 
President Fain, for your work increasing the benefits for UAW 
workers at Ford, GM, and Stellantis. And I am sure that there 
is going to be a bouquet for you from the Honda and Toyota 
workers as well.

    Thank you, Mr. O'Brien, for your work increasing the 
benefits for UPS workers. Thank you, Ms. Nelson, for your work 
in making sure that airline workers got the protections they 
needed in the pandemic.

    Thank you for trying to organize the Delta flight 
attendants right now. Thank you, because the benefits will flow 
throughout our society. So, these are big fights, big wins. 
Unions are taking big swings at corporate greed--and disgusting 
union busting that cripple the working class.

    My father, who was a union vice President, always said, you 
can't beg for your rights, you have got to take them. That is 
what you are doing. Workers across the country, from warehouses 
to schoolhouses, and hospital hallways, to the halls of 
Congress, are organizing, unionizing, and striking.

    They are demanding better and taking back their rights. But 
the fights are far from over. As corporate greed runs rampant, 
we in Congress can't rest until these wins reach every worker 
in our Country.

    Right now, Mr. O'Brien, Amazon forces workers to use 
scanners and devices to track their every move. Every box 
lifted, every delivery completed, every restroom break taken is 
accounted for by an algorithm and artificial intelligence. If 
these workers don't meet corporate quotas, they risk losing 
their jobs.

    Faced with the choice of feeding their family or breaking 
their own back to meet these quotas, some workers end up with 
life altering injuries. In short, smart tech turns sinister 
when big corporations use it to turn warehouses into Big 
Brother. So, what do we need to do, Mr. O'Brien, to break this 
trend that Amazon is leading?

    Mr. O'Brien. Right. Well, to break this well, this trend 
that Amazon is leading, I think we will take a look at what we 
achieved during the UPS agreement because we do the same exact 
work. And look, I apologize for not acquiescing to the cage 
fight in November. I was in--I mean, April. I was in----

    The Chair. Don't worry about cage fighting----

    Mr. O'Brien. No, I am just telling you, I was in a cage 
fight with UPS, one of the largest corporations, so I really 
couldn't entertain at that point. But what we did was we 
negotiated strip protections, and we know that the parcel 
delivery business is--and look, guilty as charged. We hit that 
send button on our computer.

    We want our packages 2 days prior, right. And there are 
standards that are put in these companies that--productivity 
standards that are not attainable. And what we are able to do 
at UPS, protect against such unattainable productivity 
standards, make sure we protect the members, but more 
importantly, provide a quality of workforce that is going to be 
sustainable. And we did that through protections in our 
collective bargaining agreement.

    At Amazon, you are 100 percent correct. Those workers at 
Amazon are held hostage by technology. They held hostage and 
held to a higher standard that is not achievable. And when the 
company decides you are no longer worth it, they just throw you 
out and recycle someone new in there.

    That is why there is 150 percent turnover ratio. That is 
why they have the most injuries per OSHA. And that is why they 
need to be organized and protected under a collective 
bargaining agreement.

    Senator Markey. Ms. Nelson, the theme of today's hearing is 
a rising tide lifts all boats, but we can say a rising tide 
lifts all planes as well. Earlier this year, I reintroduce my 
Good Jobs for Good Airports bill, which would provide airport 
service workers, baggage handlers, wheelchair attendants, 
airport restaurant workers with a living wage.

    These workers play an essential role in making our aviation 
system run smoothly. By paying airport service workers. And the 
SEIU is trying to organize them fair wages and benefits we 
reduce turnover, retain experienced staff, and make our entire 
aviation system safer.

    Can you speak to how the flight attendants and the CWA's 
work unionizing and representing flight attendants benefits all 
workers that keep our aviation system working?

    Ms. Nelson. Senator Markey, you and I go back a long time, 
and it was just after 9-11 when you came directly to the crisis 
room and grieved with us and said that you would stick with us 
to make sure that aviation was secure.

    We did several things together, 100 percent screening of 
cargo. You also were instrumental in making sure that the 
airport screeners who were going to the lowest bidder at--
working for the airlines at that time. I remember these people. 
We saw them at all hours of the day.

    They had to be there all hours of the day to provide for 
their families. And when we Federalized that workforce and when 
Congress changed to the pay and benefits of that Federalized 
workforce this year, to put that on the general schedule so 
that we can attract security workers to those jobs, then TSA 
was actually able to attract people. We were able to maintain 
that security.

    That same--that same formula needs to be put in place for 
all of the workers at the airport. Every single person, from 
the concession workers to the people who push the wheelchairs.

    We cannot take those planes off the ground if people are 
not getting fed properly. We have more people getting angry on 
the planes. We have medical emergencies on the plane, if they 
can't get the food.

    We need to be able to take care of our disability community 
and make sure that aviation is open to everyone. When you have 
workers who can't make a living wage and are actually sleeping 
in the gate areas because they are working around the clock, 
shifts around the clock, and sometimes different jobs at that 
airport, that makes all of us less safe.

    They also cannot live near those airports because they are 
usually in major metropolitan areas and they are having to take 
transportation sometimes 3 hours back and forth, so they don't 
even have time to go home between those shifts.

    We have got to raise the standard for all of the workers. 
It is about safety, it is about security, and it is about basic 
dignity at work. We support you 100 percent. Thank you for 
always sticking with us and we are with you.

    Senator Markey. My time is up, but I was also going to 
compliment you, Mr. Fain, for working to organize the electric 
vehicle battery plants in our Country. We have to make the 
transition to those being union workers all across the country. 
Thank you for that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

    The Chair. Thank you, Senator Markey. We are going to wrap 
it up. Senator Mullin wants to say a few words. Then I will say 
a few words.

    Senator Mullin. Well, I am going to leave the last 
statement for Mr. O'Brien completely alone and move on. If you 
do want to really have that cup of coffee, reach out. We will 
sit down and talk about it.

    Now, my differences with Mr. O'Brien has nothing to do with 
unions--zero. I have no problem with unions. I have problems 
with unions forcing people to join unions. But there is a place 
for them. And those that choose to join a union, join it. I 
have no issues with that. Mr. Fain, I enjoyed your behavior and 
honestly your comments.

    Ms. Nelson, enjoy the fight, really do. And I want to make 
it very clear for people that want to join the union, that is 
fine. I believe in right to work states and let the employer 
and employee make the best decision what is best for their 
company, and that is it.

    At the end of day, no company survives without employees, 
and no employees are hired without the company. It takes both 
in the same boat, we are on the same direction, to be 
successful.

    I am only moderately successful because I was fortunate 
enough to have great employees that worked for me for a long 
time, and I was able to build a company with them. At the same 
time, they were actually able to live a very successful life 
too. So, appreciate the time, Mr. Chairman. Appreciate the 
witnesses that came in. Thank you.

    The Chair. Thank you. Senator Lujan just walked in.

    Senator Lujan.

    Senator Lujan. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. And thank 
you to all of our witnesses for being here today. It is good to 
see you. I am going to catch my breath real quick. I apologize 
for just running up this way.

    First off, Ms. Nelson, I want to say thank you for raising 
Al in your testimony, who is a retired police officer from New 
Mexico who the country lost, who his family lost on September 
11th, on flight 175.

    I want to thank you for not just keeping his memory alive, 
but everyone else who we lost that day. Thank you. Now, Mr. 
Chairman, I am the proud son of an ironworker. My mom retired 
after 33 years from local public schools. My brother is IBEW. 
My grandfather, my mom's dad was a union carpenter.

    The turmoil that we saw, Mr. Chairman, was usually around 
holidays, and it was whether ironworkers or carpenters were 
stronger. My brother was of a younger generation, so he didn't 
get to insert himself into that specific conversation.

    I had a roof over my head because people looked out for 
each other, because they got to stick by each other. And the 
family would often remark that they wish unions weren't needed. 
Think about why they came together decades ago and people not 
getting treated fairly.

    People are getting taken advantage of. And whether it was 
decades ago or it was this morning, I have learned there is 
power in numbers. If you lean on each other, if you count on 
each other, you can usually get through something.

    It is the same thing where if a neighbor of mine has a 
challenge, there is a hole in the roof or something, then every 
one of us that has a tool or the capability, or a pair of hands 
or one hand or two, whatever it may be that can get there and 
repair that, we do it together as a family.

    But you lean on each other. You help each other in good 
times and in bad. And my dad often reminded me when he also 
picketed outside of Los Alamos National Laboratory with his 
local because he was concerned of unfair working conditions.

    Now, the irony of all of that, Mr. Chairman, is my dad died 
from lung cancer because of exposure on the job. Because 
decades ago, they didn't have the technology necessary to give 
a damn about keeping people alive, or what they were breathing 
in every day.

    Because they made a few extra bucks by not having the 
respiratory equipment that was needed, so they just let people 
get sick and die of cancer. Unions came together and said, that 
is not right.

    They started fighting for more safety gear, more safety 
apparatus so that when someone worked a full shift, whether it 
was a morning shift, an afternoon shift, swing or graveyard, 
they could get back to their family home that night, and maybe 
on Sunday go to services together, or catch a ballgame 
together, or maybe a barbecue if they were able to.

    Thank you for what you do because heaven knows that laws 
that Congress passed aren't strong enough to keep people alive 
and keep people safe. Because the laws that Congress passes 
create loopholes that allow folks, once it gets to a 
rulemaking, to create all the darned loopholes that exist so 
that people like my dad can't be here today, and he had a lot 
of living left in him--a lot of living left in him.

    I miss my dad every day. I still argue with him on occasion 
when I am out in the field and I am working on his old 1972 
Ford, because I can't get it to work the way that he did. But 
by the end of it, once it gets started, I apologize, and I ask 
for his forgiveness, and he sends it down because the tractor 
keeps running.

    It doesn't shut down on me. That is the relationship I had 
with my dad. Now, Mr. Chairman, I have many questions here 
surrounding the concerns that I saw with the inequities with 
pay and what has happened to working families across the 
country.

    I am going to submit these into the record and ask for 
these to be addressed. I am sorry that I got emotional today. 
Dad must be on the brain. Dad is always in my heart.

    But just, thank you all for being here and hope that we can 
find a way forward to make sure that families are able to get 
to work, but also get to their families at the end of their 
shift. I yield back.

    The Chair. Well, thank you very much, Senator Lujan, for 
expressing not only about your family, I think, for millions of 
families in this country. And I want to thank all of the 
panelists which we had. Thank all of you.

    Look, what we are dealing with today, and Senator Lujan 
made this point and others have made the point, is some people 
have extraordinary wealth and extraordinary power. And the 
people on top have never, ever done better in the history of 
America.

    More income and wealth inequality than we have ever had. 
More concentration of ownership. And what we have heard today 
is what is happening to ordinary people, how are they doing 
economically?

    Well, in many cases, falling further behind, can't afford 
rent, can't afford food. Corporate profits are soaring. Can't 
afford to send their kids to childcare. So how do we deal with 
that issue when so few have so much power and so many are 
powerless? And the answer is what I think we have heard today.

    The only way anybody has ever made success is when people 
come together. You can't do it alone. No worker is going to 
take on General Motors or Stellantis alone--they are not going 
to take on UPS, they are not going to take on United Airlines.

    People have got to stand together. And when people stand 
together, they succeed. And we are seeing that now. And I think 
we are going to see more of that in the years to come.

    I want to thank all of our panelists, but obviously, for 
me, I want to thank our union leaders and workers all over this 
country who are demanding justice not only for themselves and 
their unions, but for everybody.

    With that, this is the end of the hearing. For any Senators 
who wish to ask additional questions, questions for the record 
will be due in 10 business days, on November 29th. I ask 
unanimous consent to enter into the record any statement from 
stakeholder groups.

    [The following information can be found on page 92 in 
Additional Material:]

    The Chair. The Committee stands adjourned.

                          ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] 


       FCA US LLC PLEADS GUILTY TO MAKING ILLEGAL PAYMENTS TO UAW  
                               OFFICIALS 
                               
                         Monday, March 1, 2021 
                         
The American Subsidiary of Stellantis Agrees to Pay a $30 Million Fine 
                  and be Subject to Federal Oversight

    DETROIT--FCA US LLC (FCA, a/k/a Fiat Chrysler Automobiles), one of 
the big three American automobile manufacturers, pleaded guilty to 
conspiring to violate the Labor Management Relations Act, also known as 
the Taft-Hartley Act, by making illegal payments to officers of the 
United Auto Workers union, Acting United States Attorney Saima S. 
Mohsin announced today.

    FCA is the American operating subsidiary of Stellantis, and it is 
headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan.

    Today, a representative of FCA appeared in a virtual court hearing 
before United States District Judge Paul D. Borman and admitted that 
the company had conspired with other entities and individuals to 
violate the Taft-Hartley Act by making more than $3.5 million in 
illegal payments to officers of the International Union, United 
Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America 
(UAW) during the period 2009 through 2016. During the conspiracy, 
executives of FCA, including Alphons Iacobelli, Jerome Durden, and 
others, engineered the illegal payments to senior officials of the UAW. 
During the conspiracy from 2009 through June 2015, Iacobelli was the 
Senior Vice President of FCA US LLC in charge of labor relations.

    The illegal payments to UAW officials took various forms, including 
extravagant meals, rounds of golf, lavish parties for the UAW 
International Executive Board, an Italian-made shotgun, clothing, 
designer shoes, and other personal items paid for with credit cards 
issued by the joint training center. FCA executives also paid off the 
$262,000 home mortgage of former UAW Vice President General Holiefield. 
Holiefield and his widow also received hundreds of thousands of dollars 
directed through Holiefield's purported charitable organization, as 
well as companies controlled by him which had contracts with the 
training center. The illegal payments were passed through the UAW-
Chrysler Skill Development & Training Program d/b/a the UAW-Chrysler 
National Training Center (NTC). Ostensibly, the NTC was supposed to 
provide training and health and safety protections for FCA workers. The 
UAW officials who accepted illegal payments included former UAW Vice 
Presidents Holiefield and Norwood Jewell, Holiefield's widow, Monica 
Morgan, and senior UAW officials, Virdell King, Keith Mickens, and 
Nancy Johnson. Morgan and all of the UAW officials, except for 
Holiefield, have pleaded guilty to conspiring to accept the illegal 
payments from FCA or tax charges. Holiefield died in 2014.

    During the hearing, the United States and FCA presented their Rule 
11 Plea Agreement to the Court. Under the terms of the agreement, FCA 
has agreed to pay a fine of $30 million, which represents a figure 
triple the base fine amount provided for the offense by the United 
States Sentencing Guidelines. In addition, FCA has agreed to be subject 
to probation for 3 years. During that 3 year period, an independent 
compliance monitor selected by the government will oversee the 
company's adherence to Federal labor laws.

    The Court set a date for a sentencing hearing, where it will impose 
penalties based on the criminal conviction.

    Acting United States Attorney Mohsin said, ``Through its 
participation in this conspiracy, FCA violated Federal labor law and 
undermined the collective bargaining process and the faith of the UAW's 
membership in their leaders. By seeking a $30 million fine and 3 years 
of oversight by a court-appointed monitor, we are holding FCA 
accountable and sending a message to other companies that these types 
of crimes will not be tolerated.''

    ``FCA US LLC conspired to make improper labor payments to high-
ranking UAW officials, which were used for personal mortgage expenses, 
lavish parties, and entertainment expenses. Instead of negotiating in 
good faith, FCA corrupted the collective bargaining process and the UAW 
members' rights to fair representation. We will continue to work with 
our law enforcement partners to root out systemic corruption and fraud 
involving unions,'' stated Irene Lindow, Special Agent-in-Charge, 
Chicago Region, U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General.

    ``Fiat Chrysler Automobiles used a program intended for the 
betterment of its employees to instead benefit itself. By providing 
money and valuables to UAW officials, FCA corrupted the labor-
management relationship and broke the law,'' said Timothy Waters, 
Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Michigan. ``This case sends a 
clear message that the FBI and its partners will hold both union 
leadership and corporations accountable when they violate Federal 
statutes.''

    ``Today's guilty plea should serve as a reminder that IRS-CI and 
our law enforcement partners will aggressively investigate any company 
who violates Federal law in an attempt to gain an unfair advantage in 
the marketplace,'' stated Sarah Kull, Special Agent in Charge of the 
Internal Revenue Service--Criminal Investigation Detroit Field Office.

    ``While the vast majority of union officials do their work 
diligently and without incident, unfortunately civil and criminal 
violations do occur. FCA's guilty plea today confirms that it attempted 
to corrupt the collective bargaining process in order to gain favorable 
contracts from the UAW at the expense of UAW members. FCA attempted 
that corruption by making more than $3.5 million in illegal payments to 
high ranking UAW officials,'' said Thomas Murray, District Director, 
U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Labor-Management Standards. ``OLMS 
will continue to work with its law enforcement partners to hold 
accountable anyone--employer or union official--that unlawfully 
exploits their position in the collective bargaining process for 
personal or corporate financial gain without regard to the best 
interests of union members.''

    Thus far, as part of this investigation of illegal payments by FCA 
to UAW officials, as well as fraud and embezzlement by other UAW 
officers, 15 individuals have been convicted of convicted of Federal 
crimes, including three former FCA executives. They include former UAW 
Vice President Joseph Ashton (30 months in prison) former FCA Vice 
President for Employee Relations Alphons Iacobelli (66 months in 
prison), former FCA Financial Analyst Jerome Durden (15 months in 
prison), former Director of FCA's Employee Relations Department Michael 
Brown (12 months in prison), former senior UAW officials Virdell King 
(60 days in prison), Keith Mickens (12 months in prison), Nancy A. 
Johnson (12 months in prison), Monica Morgan, the widow of UAW Vice 
President General Holiefield (18 months in prison), former UAW Vice 
President Norwood Jewell (15 months in prison), former senior UAW 
official Michael Grimes (28 months in prison), and former UAW Midwest 
CAP President Edward ``Nick'' Robinson (12 months in prison). In 
addition, the following UAW officials have pleaded guilty and are 
awaiting sentencing: former UAW President Gary Jones, former senior UAW 
official Jeffrey Pietrzyk, former UAW Region 5 Director and UAW Board 
member Vance Pearson, and former UAW President Dennis Williams.

    Acting U.S. Attorney Mohsin commended the outstanding work of the 
Internal Revenue Service--Criminal Investigations, the U.S. Department 
of Labor--Office of Labor-Management Standards and Office of Inspector 
General, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in conducting a 
comprehensive criminal investigation into labor corruption activities 
involving a vital sector of the local and national economy.

    This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys David A. 
Gardey and Erin S. Shaw.
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   statement for the record by the united steel, paper and forestry, 
 rubber, manufacturing, energy, allied industrial and service workers 
                       international union (usw)
    Chairman Sanders, Ranking Member Cassidy, and Members of the U.S. 
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, on behalf 
of our 850,000 members, we want to thank you for holding this important 
hearing on the value that strong union contracts provide--both for 
their members and for workers all across this country.
                The Importance of Strong Union Contracts
    To highlight the importance of union contracts, below is a 
collection of several key contract fights that our union has won over 
the past 18 months, delivering meaningful results to both our members 
and other workers in these industries:

          Cleveland Cliffs and U.S. Steel: In October and 
        December 2022, roughly 23,000 members across 26 facilities 
        owned and operated by Cleveland Cliffs and U.S. Steel ratified 
        a new, 4-year contract. The contract includes a lump sum bonus, 
        20 percent wage increases over the term of the contract, 
        pension increases, an additional holiday, and improved 
        healthcare for both active members and retirees. This continues 
        a basic steel bargaining wage standard that benefits the entire 
        steel industry.

          Packaging Corporation of America (PCA) and Domtar: 
        Importantly, contracts do not only deal with wages or benefits, 
        but also can impact other aspects of workers' lives as well. 
        Back in May 2022, USW contract agreements in the paper sector 
        proved just that. More than 5,000 workers at PCA and Domtar won 
        strong language about domestic violence protections in their 
        collective bargaining agreements. The language allows for 
        training and support, as well as strong leave language for 
        workers affected by domestic violence.

          Bobcat: More than 700 workers at a Bobcat facility in 
        Bismarck, North Dakota ratified a 4-year contract back in July 
        2023. The contract provides annual wage increases, requires the 
        company to give notice to workers if they have to work 
        overtime, and prevents them from being mandated to work on 
        Sundays.

          Cleveland Cliffs Northshore Mining: 400 new USW 
        members in Minnesota's Iron Range ratified their first contract 
        in September 2023, which includes a lump sum bonus, annual wage 
        increases, enhanced protections for job security, and 
        improvements in occupational health and safety. The contract 
        also features high-quality health insurance with no monthly 
        premiums, as well as defined benefit pensions, while 
        maintaining an existing 401(k) with company-matching 
        contributions.

          Kumho Tire: In August 2023, 325 workers at Kumho Tire 
        won a strong, 4-year contract after nearly 4 years of 
        negotiating. These workers--who are the first tire workers to 
        form a union in more than 40 years--faced an uphill battle with 
        their obstinate employer, but they persevered and were able to 
        achieve significant victories. The contract includes yearly 
        wage improvements and other pay increases. It also includes 
        additional paid time off, a joint health and safety committee, 
        and other workplace protections, all while maintaining quality 
        healthcare and other benefits.

    In each of these cases, our union members have taken advantage of 
their federally protected right to collectively bargain with their 
employers. It is through these strong agreements that workers obtain a 
wage premium relative to their non-union peers: according to a recent 
report from the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury), the current 
union wage premium is between 10 and 15 percent. \1\ Moreover, we also 
set industry standards, establishing what experts refer to as 
spillovers. That same Treasury report found that ``each 1 percentage 
point increase in private-sector union membership rates translates to 
about a 0.3 percent increase in nonunion wages''. \2\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\  U.S. Department of the Treasury, ``Featured Stories: Labor 
Unions and the U.S. Economy'', August 28, 2023.
    \2\  Ibid.

                   The Need for Federal Policy Reform 
                   
    However, in most cases, our members are fighting for these contract 
wins in spite of existing labor law, not because of it. We need policy 
interventions to help re-balance the scales in favor of workers. Far 
too often, employers are able to leverage current labor law, which 
allows them to wield unfair power in collective bargaining 
negotiations. For example, as mentioned above, our workers at Kumho 
Tire went 4 years without a first contract because their employer 
refused to bargain with them in good faith, and our system of labor law 
currently lacks any remedy for such intransigence. Another example 
would be the former Ozburn-Hessey Logistics facility, now owned by 
GEODIS SA in Memphis, Tennessee. Workers at this location voted to join 
USW in May 2013. Ten years later, those workers are only now voting on 
their first collective bargaining agreement.

    Congress must pass S. 567, the Richard L. Trumka Protecting the 
Right to Organize (PRO) Act of 2023. By passing this legislation, 
Congress would finally address our failing system of labor law: it 
would streamline the union election process, eliminate harmful right-
to-work laws, ban certain anti-union coercion activities, and impose 
financial penalties on employers when they do break the law. Of 
particular relevance for union contract negotiations, the PRO Act would 
hold employers accountable to bargain in good faith once their workers 
have formed a union. Employers would be required to begin bargaining 
within 10 days of the union's request, and would then have 90 days to 
come to an agreement with the union or be forced to enter into 
mediation, and then perhaps, binding tripartite arbitration. Such a 
policy would provide a critical incentive--and eventually a 
requirement--for employers to bargain with their workers. 

                               Conclusion 
                               
    The right to form a union and collectively bargain is federally 
guaranteed, and ensuring its protection is of the utmost importance. We 
strongly support our siblings all across the labor movement in fighting 
for the best possible contract. While we will continue to bargain for 
strong agreements, we urge Congress to fix our broken system of labor 
law and pass S. 567, the Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to 
Organize Act of 2023. Thank you for holding this hearing and shining a 
spotlight on this critical issue.
                                 ______
                                 
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                           Continued in Part 2