[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 83 (Tuesday, June 23, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H4965-H4966]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            AMERICAN LABOR MOVEMENT: GIVING VOICE TO WORKERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Shimkus). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 21, 1997, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Vento) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.

[[Page H4966]]

  Mr. VENTO. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to recognize and support those 
in my district and around the Nation who are joined together in labor 
unions to promote workers' rights.
  In our free market economy and free enterprise system, freedom for 
workers means the right to choose a representative and have a voice in 
their wages and their working conditions. Unions provide and organize 
an effective means for workers to join together to solve problems and 
participate in discussions regarding their wages, better benefits, 
safer working conditions, and better opportunities.
  Workers should make their voices heard. Today they celebrate such 
right. I sincerely hope they have a fair hearing; that people in our 
Nation will, in fact, listen.
  Union organizing is supposed to be a right guaranteed by law; 
however, in many instances employers have directly interfered with 
worker organizing efforts. The atmosphere of intimidation in many 
workplaces makes joining a union difficult, if not impossible. This is, 
of course, unacceptable. It is time for employers, communities, and 
legislators to support the right of workers to organize.
  Unions perform a vital function in the lives of working families. 
Despite a booming economy, some workers cannot even remember the last 
time they got a raise. As the unionized share of the work force has 
declined, income inequity is increasingly dramatic. At a time when U.S. 
corporations are making record profits and the economy is strong and 
stable, it seems unreasonable that working people must struggle and too 
often losing in efforts to make ends meet.
  American workers, the most productive workers in the world, deserve 
to share in the bounty of our economy. The benefits and the path to 
achieve such justified improvements is through union membership within 
the labor movement, the same folks who brought us the 40-hour work week 
and, that is right, and importantly the weekend off.
  In fact, union negotiating does not just help those members that 
belong to that labor union. It helps our society in general and has 
promoted fair wages, fair taxes, and justice throughout our society. 
Unions attack all wage gaps, the discrepancy between executive pay and 
that of workers, income differences for women and for people of color, 
for the disabled, they fight discrimination and actively promote equal 
treatment and opportunity for all the workers in our society.
  Because better pay and conditions help achieve a more productive work 
force, union workers earn an average of 33 percent more than nonunion 
workers and are much more likely to have health and pension benefits, 
the tools that we need to take care of our family.
  Today, the simple justice of joining a union and the self-help and 
freedom to gain a fair wage is a big problem. In countless organizing 
campaigns, a majority of workers have clearly voiced a desire for union 
representation. However, more often than not they are obstructed by 
their employer's antiunion campaigns. Antiunion consulting industries 
are booming. It is a big business, guiding employers to manipulate the 
law and distort the intent in order to stall the organizing process, 
harass it, threaten and terminate workers who are trying to organize 
and achieve an exclusive representative, a union.
  Mr. Speaker, all this is done with minimal, if any, penalties. In 
fact, the process is so cumbersome that it generally takes years before 
violations are even rectified. I have seen this happen firsthand in my 
own State of Minnesota this past year. Employees at the Metrodome 
Sheraton Hotel began an organizing drive with huge worker support. In 
fact, 80 percent of the workers, 112 workers of the 140 workers, signed 
cards supporting a union. But they had to have an election.
  The Sheraton management in turn began a high-pressure campaign to put 
an end to the organizing and defeat the vote. They paid an antiunion 
consultant $300 an hour to assist them in their task. Management 
inundated the workplace with antiunion literature; offered pay raises 
to employees who promised to go along with the company and vote against 
the union.
  Worst of all, the company repeatedly brought small groups of 
employees into rooms, where the heat was turned up to almost unbearable 
levels. Workers were lectured for hours about the evils of unions. They 
got paid for sitting there. They could not speak up or talk back. They 
could not ask questions. This is in America and this is legal in labor 
union elections today.
  Mr. Speaker, this tactic of course worked. This election was lost by 
these workers, these hotel restaurant and housemen that worked at the 
Sheraton Metrodome in Minnesota. Amazingly, this type of antiunion 
campaign is neither illegal nor uncommon. Eight out of ten private 
sector employers hire professional consultants when faced with 
organizing efforts in their business. They do not want workers 
organized. They do not want workers in a union. They do not want 
workers to have such rights accorded in law.
  Of course, this tactic works. The result is the frustration and 
intimidation of workers. In the case of the Minneapolis Sheraton, 
despite overwhelming support at the beginning of the process, the 
employees voted not to elect an exclusive representative this past May. 
But this was an election stacked against the workers and their right to 
have a union.
  Mr. Speaker, a strong labor movement helps all Americans. Let us 
listen today as these voices are raised of working people across this 
country.
  It is our job as elected leaders to ensure that the national and 
state laws allow our constituents to enjoy the fundamental values of 
democracy--freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. That includes, 
under law and custom, the long honored right to have a voice in their 
wages and working conditions. When workers are denied that voice, they 
no longer share in the wealth that they create. The health worker can't 
afford to be treated at the clinics and hospitals in which they labor. 
Auto workers can't afford to buy and drive the cars they make.
  Congress needs to show support beyond voting positively upon labor 
issues. We can use our leverage to ensure that the rights and interests 
of America's labor force are advanced, that working families are 
accorded dignity and respect. Moreover, we have the obligation to make 
sure that the employers, policies, and laws that shape this 
relationship are just and workable.
  Workers have the right to fully participate in the political arena. 
However, today the political voice of labor and working families faces 
the prospect of being silenced. Frankly, big business has the economic 
leverage to elect candidates who put the interests of corporations 
first. Corporations outspend labor unions 17 to one in lobbying efforts 
and other types of political involvement. We have to support labor 
organizations, so that they have a fair chance to support the 
candidates who will amplify the voices, views and concerns of the 
worker and working families.
  Unfortunately, in Washington, DC, too much time and energy is focused 
on controversy, personalities, and political rhetoric. The everyday 
struggles of working families are often glossed over and shifted to the 
back burner. Or worse yet, under the guise of reform turned inside out, 
further limiting and stripping the worker of the limited rights they 
today hold. It is time to do the right thing, by respecting laborers 
and their rights, and truly listen to their concerns. On this day, the 
day for workers to make their voice heard, I speak for Minnesota 
working families, and working families across the nation, to recognize 
and support the right to organize. I encourage all of my colleagues to 
consider the successes and heartaches of those who are trying to join 
together in this crescendo to make their voices heard.

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