[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 98 (Tuesday, July 21, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1364-E1365]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      NATIONAL RIGHT TO WORK BILL

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                           HON. BOB SCHAFFER

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 15, 1998

  Mr. BOB SCHAFFER of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the 
gentleman for yielding, and I would also like to thank him for his 
commitment and hard work on this issue.
  Mr. Speaker, I have personally received hundreds of petitions from 
constituents urging a roll-call vote on H.R. 59, and I am proud to be 
able to speak here tonight in defense of those constituents.
  I certainly agree with the gentleman from Virginia. H.R. 59 is about 
individual liberty.
  Members, particularly from the other side of the aisle, and the union 
officials down the street in their fortress they call the ``Marble 
House'', built by forced dues, like to purport that the National Right 
to Work Act is an attempt to silence workers. To the contrary, Mr. 
Speaker, the National Right to Work Act is about giving workers a 
voice.
  As the gentleman from Virginia stated, this bill does not add one 
single word to federal law. It simply amends the National Labor 
Relations Act and Railway Labor Act by striking the forced-dues 
provisions from federal law. That is it.

[[Page E1365]]

  The National Right to Work Act would leave the following language 
completely intact: ``Employees shall have the right to self-
organization, to form, join or assist labor organizations to bargain 
collectively through representatives of their own choosing and to 
engage in other concerted activities for the purposes of collective 
bargaining or other mutual aid or protection and shall have the right 
to refrain from any or all such activity''.
  Mr. Speaker that is where the Right to Work Act would put the period. 
I want to make it clear, the National Right to Work Act maintains 
employees' rights to join or assist a labor organization. The National 
Right to Work Act maintains employees' rights to bargain collectively 
through representatives of their own choosing.
  What the National Right to Work Act removes is the following four 
lines and its supporting lines. ``Except to the extent that such right 
may be affected by an agreement requiring membership in a labor 
organization as a condition of employment.''
  That is what opponents of the National Right to Work Act object to, 
Mr. Speaker. Eliminating the right currently held by union officials to 
force workers to pay union dues as a condition of employment.
  Opponents of this bill object to allowing individual workers the 
right to decide for themselves whether or not they wish to join or pay 
dues to a labor union.
  Mr. Speaker, what opponents of this bill object to is taking away the 
power union officials currently have to tell America's workers to 
either pay up or get fired.
  Mr. Speaker, why are opponents of this bill afraid to give a voice to 
workers? It is because union officials know that their agenda is 
different than their workers.
  As President Clinton's former Labor Secretary said: ``In order to 
maintain themselves, they have to hold their members to the mast, hold 
their feet to the fire.''
  The Right to Work principle affirms the right of all Americans to 
work where they want and for whom they want without coercion of any 
kind to join or not join or financially support labor unions.
  Mr. Speaker, One of America's great founding fathers, and U.S. 
President, Thomas Jefferson, once wrote: ``To compel a man to furnish 
contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he 
disbelieves is sinful and tyrannical.''
  Mr. Speaker, today millions of Americans are being forced to 
contribute money for the propagation of opinions that they do not 
believe in.
  It is time to have a vote on the National Right to Work Act. It is 
time to let the American people know if their Representatives support 
individual liberty or compulsion.

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