[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 49 (Wednesday, April 17, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E556]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               TRIBUTE TO THE LATE THOMAS F. QUINLAN, SR.

                                 ______


                           HON. JOHN SHADEGG

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 17, 1996

  Mr. SHADEGG. Mr. Speaker, it is with great sadness that I announce 
the death of a courageous American who fought for more than four 
decades on behalf of the principle that no worker should be forced to 
pay union dues as a condition of employment.
  Thomas F. Quinlan, Sr., father, husband, teacher, small businessman, 
and public servant, died February 11 at his home in Wheaton, IL, where 
he moved after retiring to be near two of his six children.
  As a history teacher in New Milford, CT, for 24 years and owner of a 
small lakeside resort for 20 years, Tom Quinlan appreciated the 
importance of right to work for both workers and small businessmen.
  Mr. Quinlan also served three terms in the Connecticut general 
assembly, from 1954 to 1960. During those years, he worked tirelessly 
for enactment of a Connecticut right to work law, but was frustrated by 
the State's powerful union political machine, fed by the forced dues of 
the very workers whose rights Mr. Quinlan was working to protect.
  But he never gave up.
  After leaving electorial politics, Mr. Quinlan carried on his 
efforts, to bring the benefits of voluntary unionism to Connecticut's 
workers by helping to found, and serving as president of, the 
Connecticut Right to Work Educational Committee.
  Tom Quinlan was also a leader in the fight against compulsory 
unionism on the national level, serving as a board member of the 
National Right to Work Committee, which has led the fight for worker 
freedom across the country for over 40 years, from 1965 until his 
recent passing.
  As a member of the committee's board, Mr. Quinlan helped guide the 
right to work movement through its successful battles against big 
labor's attempt to repeal section 14(b) of the Taft-Hartley Act in the 
mid-sixties, the phony labor law ``reform'' bill of the seventies, and 
the so-called anti-striker replacement bill in the nineties.
  His last service to the cause of freedom was helping to launch the 
campaign to pass the National Right to Work Act (S. 581/H.R. 1279), 
which will soon be voted on in the Senate.
  That Congress is even considering repeal of those sections of Federal 
labor law that authorize forced-dues contracts is in no small measure 
due to Mr. Quinlan's work.
  Remembering his departed colleague, National Right to Work Committee 
president Reed Larson recalled his optimism, ``No matter how many 
temporary setbacks right to work forces suffered, Tom Quinlan remained 
confident that our cause was just and would prevail in the end.''
  I stand before this body to pay tribute to Tom Quinlan's achievements 
and to offer my condolences to his family and friends.
  All Americans owe a debt of gratitude to this former history teacher 
and small businessman's tireless efforts on behalf of right to work, 
and those of us who remain active in this fight should share Tom 
Quinlan's firm belief in the eventual triumph of the right to work 
cause.

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