[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 82 (Wednesday, June 13, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H3127]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            ORGANIZED LABOR

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Hart). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. GREEN of Texas. Madam Speaker, I rise to join my colleagues in 
praising the men and women of organized labor. Organized labor has been 
a key proponent in the battle for fair wages and better working 
conditions and safer working conditions throughout the history of our 
Nation. Just like my colleague from California, let me say a little 
background because I know people all over the country do not know that 
most of us represent individual districts.
  I started out in high school, as we call it, a fly boy at a 
newspaper, and worked in my apprenticeship, graduating from college; at 
the same time also getting my journeyman as a union printer, and 
finding out in 1971 I made more as a union printer than I did as a 
college graduate with an undergraduate degree in business. So I stayed 
in the printing business and worked there and ended up helping manage a 
small business.
  In that time, I got involved in politics, elected to the legislature, 
went back to law school at night but still worked in the printing 
business for 23 years and still kept my card in the union. With the 
merging now of the Typographical Union with the Communications Workers 
Union, I can proudly say that I am not working at the trade but a 
member of the Communications Workers Union.
  I tell people do not ask me to fix their phone. I cannot even run a 
press any more. I have been ruined by serving in Congress.
  I believe that the right to bargain collectively is a basic civil 
right and that unions are an avenue of that fair treatment and economic 
stability for working people.
  The right for people to bargain collectively and independently is not 
only important in our country but around the world because of the 
litmus test on the freedom that a society has.
  We have seen the impact that employee groups can have in establishing 
more Democratic governments in institutions worldwide, with one example 
of the success being the Solidarity Union in Poland. In other countries 
that are still autocratic regimes, such as China and Vietnam, the 
rights of workers to organize into unions or employee groups and push 
for improved pay and working conditions will be the key to showing that 
that country is ready for real governmental and economic reforms and 
establishing a free society and the rule of law.
  So freedom to organize is a basic civil right that free societies 
enjoy.
  Back here in America, last year 475,000 people joined unions in 2000. 
Despite the fact that oftentimes this is a basic right of workers, they 
face intimidation from employers who break the law and try to prevent 
workers from organizing.
  Let me read just a few statistics about what workers have to go 
through to exercise their rights. Twenty-five percent of employers fire 
workers that try to organize unions. Over 90 percent of the employers, 
upon hearing that their workers want to organize, force employees to 
attend closed-door meetings and listen to the anti-union propaganda. 
Whether it is true or not, no one really knows since they are closed 
door.
  Thirty-three percent of employers illegally fire workers who tried to 
form unions and 50 percent of employers, half of the employers, 
threatened to shut down if their employees organize.
  If workers in America are subject to this kind of discrimination, 
then we can only imagine what workers in the rest of the world have to 
go through when they want to join together to bargain collectively.
  Before I get too far along, I have a particular piece of legislation 
that came out of an experience in Houston that I want to speak to. This 
is the second session I have introduced what is now H.R. 652, the Labor 
Relations First Contract Negotiation Act. This bill was introduced to 
enhance the rights of employees to organize and bargain collectively 
for improved living standards. It will require mediation and ultimately 
arbitration if an employer and newly-elected representative had not 
reached a collective bargaining agreement within 60 days.
  Time after time, valid elections are held where workers choose to be 
represented by a union, but months and sometimes years later will go by 
and these workers still have no contract even though they voted for 
union representation.
  This bill is important because what we see with the NLRB is that the 
delay is often justice denied, and what we would like to see is that 
bill come to a vote so we can debate real labor law reform on both 
sides of the issue. I believe passage of that bill will help with 
short-circuiting the delay that we have with the NLRB and actually have 
workers go back to work and prevent workers and employers being locked 
in sometimes a stalemate.
  America has a great history of recognizing workers and their right to 
organize, but we still have a long way to go.
  I want to thank the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bonior) for his 
effort today and will work with him to continue to fight for the rights 
of workers not only here in America but throughout the world. I know 
the bumper sticker I see in Houston often says, ``If you like weekends, 
it is brought to you by unions.'' I think that says more than any of us 
can say, Madam Speaker.

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