[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 30 (Wednesday, March 2, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H1460-H1461]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    ATTACK ON MIDDLE CLASS AMERICANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. George Miller) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to 
highlight a very serious and dangerous attack on middle class Americans 
being waged by the Republicans in the Congress and in Statehouses 
across the country.
  The Wisconsin Governor's assault on public employees is getting most 
of the media attention, but it is just one of the fronts of the extreme 
right wing and anti-worker agenda trying to be carried out in this 
country. In fact, there is a well-financed and coordinated national 
attack against working families and the unions that they may belong to, 
the goal of which is to take away power from the middle class and give 
it to the wealthy special interests that have backed Republicans in 
their elections.
  Here is how it is playing out: The Republicans are taking a real 
problem, a serious problem--budget deficits and long-term debt in this 
country--and they are assigning to it a fake cause. Under the guise of 
cutting deficits they say that working people's union rights and 
workplace protections must be eliminated. In fact, this attack against 
working people is designed to remove the vital check on special 
interest corporate power from overrunning our democracy.
  This is an extreme agenda that they have always pursued, but they are 
now using their newfound political power to relaunch the attacks, to 
attack the guarantee to a decent wage, to attack the rights to ensure a 
safe workplace so when the workers leave home in the morning they know 
they will return safely at night.

                              {time}  1020

  They attack the rights to have access to affordable health care and 
secure retirement. And yes, they're even attacking the rights of 
working people to join together to bargain for a better life and better 
conditions in the workplace.
  So at the same time that the Governors of Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, 
and

[[Page H1461]]

New Jersey are demanding more public and private union employee 
sacrifices, Republicans in Washington are using the budget fight to 
roll back the rights and protections of American workers.
  Their spending priorities in their so-called continuing resolution of 
last week show their hand. They voted to take away workers' ability to 
repeal unjust and unfair and illegal actions in the workplace by 
getting rid of the National Labor Relations Board. They voted to 
undermine the wages of construction workers on Federal projects. They 
voted to roll back workplace health and safety protections guaranteed 
by Federal law.
  While protecting subsidies for corporate interests, they have sought 
to cut education funding and critical support for workers in need of 
job training, and yes, even kids in Head Start.
  These rights and services helped to build and sustain our Nation's 
middle class in the last century making the United States the greatest 
economic power in the history of the world. We have the greatest 
workers in the world because of these rights. But now the rights and 
economic strength of America's middle class are at risk. It's under a 
systematic assault in the statehouses controlled by Republican 
legislatures and Republican Governors and in this House of 
Representatives controlled by the Republicans--a systematic assault 
that goes beyond after the unions, after the workers have agreed to 
givebacks, to furlough days, to give back health care benefits, pension 
benefits. They want more. They want their union. They want their rights 
in the workplace to be terminated. It's un-American.
  There's a reason that we have collective bargaining in this country, 
because we know that workers should have a right to bond together to 
improve the workplace, to improve their working conditions. And when 
they do, those rights flow to the rest of middle class working families 
in this country. In even the non-union workplaces, those rights are 
there. That's how we achieved an 8-hour day, that's how we achieved 
vacation time, that's how we achieved health care, that's how we 
achieved overtime whether you're in the union or not.
  But now they want to take away the rights of unions to organize in 
the workplace, the rights of workers to organize.
  But the Republicans have asked for no sacrifices. In all these cuts, 
they have asked for no sacrifices of the well-off and the well-
connected. In fact, these cuts are being made in the name of the well-
off and the well-connected so that they will be able to push for lower 
wages, for lower benefits, for lower health care for our workers, for 
lower take-home pay. And what does that do to the economy? It makes 
America poor.
  How do you build a strong middle class community on the back of low-
wage earners? You can't do it. It's never been done.
  But the fact is, many years ago America decided we wanted a strong 
and a vibrant middle class, and we did that by forming a union and by 
giving people the right to have a say at work. We know study after 
study where workers have a say in the workplace, they work harder, 
they're more productive, they're more innovative, they're more open to 
new ideas.
  But what do we say to workers with the Governors of Wisconsin and 
Ohio and Indiana? Do what we tell you to do, do it for less pay, do it 
for less benefits, and do it because we told you so. That doesn't sound 
like America to me. It doesn't sound like a powerful country that has 
the best and most productive workers in the history in the world. That 
sounds like something that we're not familiar with in this country. 
That sounds like an autocratic system that just demands and takes but 
never gives.

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