[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 126 (Tuesday, August 1, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H8073]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                    PROTECTING THE RIGHTS OF WORKERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentlewoman from Hawaii [Mrs. Mink] is recognized during 
morning business for 3 minutes.
  Mrs. MINK of Hawaii. Mr. Speaker, I join today in decrying the Labor, 
Health, Human Services, and Education appropriations bill. We will be 
funding the Labor Department, and in what the bill provides, it is an 
outright attack on working men and women throughout this country. The 
Republican majority is using this appropriations bill to circumvent the 
appropriate legislative process in order to push through an antiworker 
agenda.
  The 30-percent cut in funding of the National Labor Relations Board 
and language restricting the Board's authority to use its enforcement 
tools is a direct attack on the basic rights of employees to organize 
unions.
  The right of workers to join together as one unit and bargain 
collectively for better wages, health care, and other benefits and safe 
working conditions has been an integral part of American law for more 
than a half a century. The National Labor Relations Board protects this 
right and resolves disputes between employers and employees.
  Even without 1 hour of hearing, this appropriations bill, by cutting 
funds, undermines the ability of the National Labor Relations Board to 
protect the rights of working men and women and by legislative proviso 
ties their hands regarding enforcement. Unfair labor practices brought 
to the Board will languish, violations of law will go unchecked, and 
labor disputes will be prolonged.
  Anyone with experience in business knows that timeliness is crucial 
to both employers and employees in the resolution of labor disputes. 
When disputes linger, productivity suffers, workers suffer, and 
families suffer.
  This is not about protecting a bureaucracy. It is about protecting 
working people, people who get up every morning and go to work to face 
hazardous working conditions or unfair treatment. It is about 
protecting their ability to band together and petition for decent 
working conditions and decent wages.
  The Republican bill is a blatant attempt to get rid of longstanding 
protections for working men and women in this country. I urge my 
colleagues to vote against this repudiation of the rights of working 
people.


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