[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 59 (Wednesday, April 22, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E924-E925]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   ``NICK ROUSSOS: AN AMERICAN HERO''

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BARNEY FRANK

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 22, 2009

  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Madam Speaker, our jobs as Members of 
Congress are sources of great satisfaction to us, but there are 
occasional downsides. For me, the worst is the fact that I cannot 
literally be in two places at one time on certain occasions. One of 
those is coming up. On Friday, May 1st, at a time when I already 
committed myself irrevocably to be elsewhere, the Arnold M. Dubin Labor 
Education Center at the University of Massachusetts/Dartmouth will be 
celebrating the life of the late Nicholas Roussos.
  Madam Speaker, at a time when we are trying to pass legislation that 
will restore to American working men and women the right to be fairly 
represented in the workplace through unions of their choosing, it is 
poignant that Nick Roussos passed away. No one I have ever worked with 
has been a better, more dedicated, tougher, and at the same time 
gentler crusader for the rights of working people than Nick Roussos. As 
a leader in the Southeastern Massachusetts branch of the International 
Ladies Garment Workers Union, and as a prominent member of the 
leadership of the labor movement in general, both in Southeastern 
Massachusetts and in the Commonwealth, Nick Roussos embodied the best 
in that activity.
  I first met him in 1981, when congressional redistricting sent me to 
the City of Fall River to look for support. I found a strong supporter. 
But more importantly, I found a great friend and a source of 
inspiration. No one who worked with Nick Roussos--no one exposed to his 
infectious humor even in the face of the greatest adversity--could 
become jaded for too long. At the tensest moments I had to deal with. I 
would find excuses to call Nick and get the encouragement and energy 
that he could dispense as well as anybody else, and far more than most.
  Economic trends, especially trade policy, have been unkind and unfair 
to the people that Nick represented. But he never gave up fighting hard 
for justice for them.
  Madam Speaker, Nick Roussos was an American hero. He did as much as 
was humanly possible to improve the quality of life for his neighbors 
and for the people he represented.
  And it's important to note that those whom he dealt with on the 
industry side shared the

[[Page E925]]

great respect for him that I have expressed here.
  Madam Speaker, the Arnold M. Dubin Labor Education Center is an 
institution in which he vigorously participated, and it does a great 
deal to carry on the best traditions of American labor policy. I very 
much regret that I cannot join so many of my friends in honoring Nick 
Roussos on May 1st, but I do want to take this opportunity to remind 
people of the spirit that he embodied and of the need for us to enact 
legislation that will allow people like Nick Roussos to continue the 
work that they have done on behalf of those most in need of assistance.

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