[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 101 (Wednesday, July 10, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S7514]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         RIGHT TO WORK FOR LESS

  Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, today the Senate will take up the Right to 
Work Act. This legislation hurts union members by giving nonmembers a 
free ride to get union-negotiated benefits without contributing their 
fair share--or any money at all--to defray the costs. By repealing 
parts of the National Labor Relations Act and the Railway Labor Act 
which give each State the right to determine whether union security 
agreements should be permissible in that State, this bill would make 
such agreements unlawful in all States. Mr. President, this is bad 
public policy.
  Currently, the National Labor Relations Act allows States to prohibit 
union security clauses but does not preempt State law if a State 
chooses to allow such agreements. That permits employers and unions to 
agree, if they wish, that employees will be required to give financial 
support to the union. My State of Massachusetts has chosen to permit 
such agreements, and workers are the beneficiaries. What the workers in 
my State of Massachusetts get from this is higher wages, greater 
benefits which protect them and their families, and a higher standard 
of living.
  This bill unfairly tilts the playing field in favor of employers and 
against labor unions. Under Federal law, the union is responsible for 
representing employees in the bargaining unit even if they pay nothing 
toward the union's expenses. Under right-to-work legislation, these 
employees get union-negotiated higher wages and benefits as well as 
union representation during grievance proceedings without contributing 
a dime. Giving nonmembers a free ride to get union-negotiated benefits 
without contributing to defray the costs is unfair, and in the long run 
will weaken the ability of unions to obtain favorable wages and 
benefits for all workers in a unionized company.
  Republicans are insisting on preempting State law despite the fact 
that only 21 States have seen fit to enact right-to-work laws since 
they were deemed lawful, 18 of these prior to 1959. And just last year 
legislatures in six States, Colorado, Maryland, Montana, New Hampshire, 
New Mexico, and Oklahoma, defeated statewide right-to-work bills. It is 
noteworthy that three of these are Republican-controlled legislatures.
  Mr. President, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to 
force their sense of judgment and propriety on my State of 
Massachusetts and take away a free choice that my State ought to have 
and has always had. Simply speaking, if a State does not want right-to-
work laws then these laws should not be imposed on it because some 
people here in the Senate more greatly value their own judgment on this 
issue than they do the judgment of the people of Massachusetts. I might 
point out that most of the Senators voting to do this voted against 
raising the minimum wage yesterday. This goes too far, Mr. President.
  The Republicans' decision to couple the right-to-work bill--which has 
never been subject to hearings or markup--with the TEAM Act underscores 
their true disinterest in helping working Americans. And as they decry 
the role of big government in the lives of working Americans, the 
Republicans go ahead and tell the people of Massachusetts that they 
know better, that they know what the people of Lowell or Lawrence or 
Springfield or Boston or Hyannis want.
  Right-to-work laws have not brought economic bonanzas to States that 
have adopted them. Not 1 of the 21 right-to-work States has a pay level 
above the national average and not 1 ranks in the top 15 States for 
annual workers' pay. This bill ought to be called the right-to-work-
for-less bill.
  Union security clauses are negotiated by a democratically elected 
union and the employer. Coming on the heels of Independence Day, 
opposing this bill is the right thing to do for the American worker, 
and I urge my colleagues to vote against this bill.

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