[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 47 (Monday, April 4, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2079-S2081]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING RALLIES
Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about the rallies
that have occurred all over this country today, and to add my voice to
theirs. Today, Americans in all 50 States are gathering at hundreds of
rallies and events to stand together in unity in defense of the
collective bargaining rights of public employees--rights I believe are
now under attack in Wisconsin, Ohio, and in other States across this
country.
That those demonstrations have been held today is no mere
coincidence, for on this very day, 43 years ago, the Reverend Dr.
Martin Luther King was killed in Memphis, TN, while standing up for the
rights of 1,300 public sanitation workers.
Working men and women gathered early today in Wilmington to declare
``We Are One,'' and within the hour of this speech, thousands more will
gather in Madison, WI, to protest what in my view is the scandalous
move of Governor Walker to strip Wisconsin's longstanding collective
bargaining rights from public-sector employees.
Before coming to this body, I served as the county executive of New
Castle County, DE, for 6 years. And before becoming Governor of
Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker was also the county executive of
Milwaukee County for 8 years. I understand the difficult choices
executives face when they must adopt a balanced budget, even in the
toughest of economic and fiscal times, for as county executive I too
faced extremely difficult budget challenges, as did the Presiding
Officer as the Governor of West Virginia.
But I rise today because I know from my experience in cutting
spending and in balancing budgets that it can be done without stripping
American workers of their fundamental rights to organize and to
collectively bargain. I know it because I have done it through
collective bargaining and without resorting to blaming and draconian
anti-union legislation.
New Castle County, DE, is a mid-sized county government serving just
over \1/2\ million people and has a budget of about $230 million. As
the county executive, I confronted a real and growing budget problem.
Our housing boom
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had masked deepening spending deficits that were unsustainable even
before the economic collapse in 2008. As our national and local
economies tumbled, our government's revenue did as well. I had already
spent my first few years as county executive cutting spending each and
every year in simple cuts, and we had only fundamental cuts in front of
us.
We had reduced library hours, ended popular public events, and made
many difficult choices that many local governments and many State
governments face today. But that wasn't enough. As with many State and
local governments, our budget was three-quarters personnel costs, and
we could not allow those costs to continue to grow as health care and
pension costs boomed. We needed to cut our people cost to get our
budget under control.
Now, in the case of the county I formerly served, more than 80
percent of the county workforce is represented by organized labor,
mostly AFSCME, but also the FOP and IBEW as well--and we needed all
groups to come together and share the sacrifice that lay ahead.
It was just 2 years ago last week that I rose before our county
council and delivered the hardest budget address I had ever given, one
in which I laid out that we had two paths forward; one path would
involve having all the suffering focused on about 150 to 200 public
employees who would have to be laid off to balance our budget, and the
other was sharing that sacrifice across our entire mostly unionized
workforce.
Ultimately, after many meetings, many negotiations, some very hard
talk and debate--and yes, even at one point some layoffs--every
bargaining unit in our county government came to the table, worked
collaboratively, and helped us reach the goal of cutting 5 percent of
our total personnel costs not just 1 year but, as the recession
continued and deepened, a second year as well. Many of these great and
dedicated public employees saw health care costs shift and benefit
packages change as well. But together they were willing to share that
sacrifice, to work in the best interests of our county and the public,
and to acknowledge that we are one.
In some ways, seeking a legislative solution such as has been done in
Wisconsin, trying to simply strip away the right to be organized, to be
at the bargaining table, might have seemed easier. Working together, as
you know, as labor and management is not an easy path. No one wants to
hear they have to do more with less, especially when it comes to their
own paychecks. And public employees--in Delaware and all across this
country--are, in my view, not just the backbone of our community but
the backbone of our middle class. They are the policemen, the
paramedics, the 911 call-takers, the emergency sewer repairmen, the
librarians, the teachers, the health service workers, and the prison
guards--the folks who keep our communities safe, healthy, and prepared
for the future day in and day out.
In my view, where public employees come together to organize and seek
collective representation on workplace issues, we ought to respect
those choices. Collective bargaining serves as a critical check on our
system and its long and storied history is an important part of
American history and American values. It is that check that led to the
end of child labor practices, that led to the 40-hour workweek and the
weekend, to workplace safety rules, and ended legal sweatshops. It is a
critical check against excesses and overreach by management and by the
marketplace.
I stand here today to remind all of us that labor unions and the
hundreds of thousands of public employees they represent in this
country are not the enemy. We all know this country faces a
significant, almost devastating national debt and annual budget
deficit, and we are going to have to make shared sacrifices and tough
choices to get through these next few years. But that does not require
we strip the collective bargaining rights of the hundreds of thousands
of public employees who serve us in the Federal Government, and the
hundreds of thousands, even millions of public employees who serve our
Nation at each and every level of government.
More often than not, these are the employees who do the difficult,
the dirty and the dangerous jobs that keep us safe and make our
communities strong. They simply, in my view, do not deserve to be
demonized but, rather, to be listened to, respected, and partnered
with, as together we seek solutions to the challenges facing our
country now and in the future. In my view, passing new laws to
eliminate their basic collective bargaining rights is wrong, and we can
do it better by working together.
So today, I join with all those who are standing up for these
fundamental rights of the American worker and join them in declaring
``We Are One.''
Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Will the Senator withhold his suggestion.
Mr. COONS. Yes, Mr. President.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, I came to the floor for the same
reason Senator Coons did. I appreciate the comments of the Senator from
Delaware in the beginning of his first term in office. He obviously
understands the importance of worker rights and the importance of
collective bargaining.
In my State, collective bargaining passed 30 years ago. Because of
that, we no longer see the ``blue flu,'' where a police officer calls
in sick. Because there was no ability to organize and bargain
collectively, they would call in sick the same day. They had no other
way of expressing themselves. We have seen significant labor peace,
when we didn't always have labor peace on a lot of these issues prior
to the early 1980s in my State, where we now have collective
bargaining.
My colleagues who have followed the news--I think people are very
aware of this in my State--know that Governor Kasich recently signed
legislation to take away those bargaining rights. That is why I have
come to the floor today, in part, to celebrate We Are One, an
organization that represents people of faith, people who belong to
trade unions, people who care about economic justice, people who
support strong community local services--the police, the firefighters,
nurses, teachers--and who have come together to honor Dr. King.
As Senator Coons mentioned, Dr. King was assassinated 43 years ago
today because he was standing with workers in Memphis, TN--sanitation
workers. Some of those workers had been crushed to death on the job by
heavy machinery and had no ability to bargain collectively, no ability
to fight for themselves. Most of them African American, most had no
real rights to job safety, decent wages, or benefits. Dr. King
understood that worker rights is a human rights issue, and that is why
he stood up.
The debate in statehouses across America--Wisconsin, Ohio, and in
other places--is about collective bargaining, but it is really about
rights, opportunities, and the future of the middle class. The American
middle class, as Senator Coons pointed out, didn't happen by chance.
Those aspiring to the middle class had to work hard and play by the
rules in order to enter it. The middle class was created after people
worked together to demand a minimum wage, safe workplaces, pensions,
Social Security, and basic fairness. The middle class, in many ways in
this country, was a direct outgrowth of the passage in this body some
70-plus years ago of collective bargaining--the right of both private-
sector workers, then later public-sector workers, to organize and
bargain collectively,
Last fall we heard many of the Republican winners of elections in my
State, and I think across the country, talk about the loss of jobs--the
job loss that began during the Bush administration. When President
Obama took office, we were losing 700,000 jobs a month. We are now
beginning to gain jobs, and have done that the last 12 or 13 months,
especially in manufacturing. We know manufacturing jobs create a middle
class. But after winning these elections last fall in my State, instead
of focusing on jobs, as they did during the election, too many
politicians are governing by ideology and seeking to settle old scores.
At a time when the middle class is struggling more than at any time in
my lifetime, when workers are seeing their productivity going up and up
and up but seeing their wages flatten or even seeing their hours cut
back, American
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families are burdened by new attacks on their rights.
About a month and a half ago, at a roundtable held in an Episcopal
church on the statehouse square in Columbus, I was listening to nurses,
teachers, police officers, and other public employees. I had heard from
conservative politicians who wanted to cut off collective bargaining
rights, to take those rights away, and those people making accusations
that these firefighters and police officers and teachers were lazy,
overpaid, had too much time off, had pensions that were too big, had
health care benefits that were too generous. But as I was hearing all
that from critics, I was listening one on one to these public
employees.
A young teacher, who had been teaching only about 10 years, told me
that when she goes to the bargaining table, she doesn't just talk about
wages and benefits but that she is negotiating for smaller class sizes
as well. A police officer I talked to wasn't just talking about
pensions and pay, he was negotiating for a bulletproof vest for him and
his men and women colleagues who were also police officers.
So these negotiations are not just for more money, more public
dollars spent on behalf of these police, firefighters, teachers, and
nurses; they are also about helping society, improving society,
expanding on the middle class.
It is clear those attacking collective bargaining are more interested
in taking rights away than creating jobs. It is clear in Ohio. The bill
that passed the House of Representatives would give Ohio the most
restrictive voter regulation laws in the Nation that they would seek to
limit our basic freedoms--restrict worker rights, restrict the right to
vote, cut back on women's rights. Perhaps I am missing something, but
how does that have anything to do with creating jobs and strengthening
our economy?
Let me, for a couple of moments, put a human face on all of this.
I have a friend who is a firefighter named George, in Willoughby, OH.
He wrote me this letter right after the Governor signed this
legislation taking away his rights, taking away bargaining rights for a
huge number of police officers and firefighters and teachers and health
care workers and nurses and others. He said:
I joined my proud profession knowing I would never be rich.
I truly joined knowing I would be helping people. I joined
knowing I would be able to raise a family. I joined knowing I
would have a pension in the end.
As a 21-year-old kid entering this profession, I weighed
heavily on the ``helping people'' and the pure excitement of
the job. Now, as a 41-year-old firefighter who has been
beaten down both physically and emotionally, I will admit my
pension now plays a role, is my driving force to go to work
every day.
I have always been the firefighter who the bosses look to
when a task needs doing.
I will soon be a 42-year-old firefighter in my 21st year of
service. I am virtually 6.5 years from being able to retire.
This job has torn up my knees, requiring surgery to one of
them.
This job has injured my back on several occasions, twice
requiring extensive time off to rehab. I am doing everything
possible to avoid surgery.
This job has caused memories that will stick with me for
the rest of my life, the kind of memories that make you go
home and hug your wife and kids and thank God that they are
safe.
I mention all this because, as you know, we as public
servants are being attacked in Ohio. We are being attacked in
our profession as well as our retirement. Our fundamental
rights and the foundation of our profession are being
attacked. Collective bargaining is the only way we have been
able to improve safety as well as maintain a quality of life
for our families. This system protects both the taxpayer and
the public servant from leaders on both sides who choose to
rule with an iron fist.
I am now one of our beat-up senior firefighters who is
rapidly approaching retirement age. Where do threats of
pension changes leave me or the many others like me if I am
unable to finish my years of service due to injury? Where do
those threats of pension changes leave me if my employer
decides it is ``fiscally responsible'' to lay off higher-paid
beat-up senior firefighters to keep lower-paid younger
fighters?
I will get back to the letter in a second, but my understanding is,
under the legislation that Governor Kasich signed, management, then,
would be able to say: This firefighter is more likely to get hurt. He
is older and gets paid more, so we will lay off five of them in their
forties and keep the younger ones. It is just too bad they are not
going to have enough years to retire.
That is what taking away collective bargaining rights, that is what
busting the union for these firefighters or police officers or teachers
or nurses can do.
Back to the letter:
In Willoughby, due to economic conditions, we have not
replaced firefighters who have died or retired. In 1990 we
ran 2,100 incidents per year. In 2010 we ran just under 5,000
incidents.
In 20 years it went from 2,100 runs to 5,000 runs.
I am sure we are not the only city that continues to
operate understaffed with higher volumes.
I consider myself a moderate when it comes to politics. I
have always voted for those who support me as a public
servant. That is what true public servants do.
That was George, a firefighter in Lake County, OH, in Willoughby,
just east of Cleveland.
Again, this is not just about collective bargaining. It is what we
want our country to be. Dr. King, whom we honor, who was assassinated
43 years ago today--Dr. King delivered the 1965 commencement address at
Antioch College, in Yellow Springs, OH, where Coretta Scott attended
many years before. On the moral question of confronting poverty, Dr.
King said:
There is no deficit in human resources. The deficit is in
human will.
Yes, we all care about budget deficits. We know we need to move
toward a balanced budget. We know our first focus needs to be creating
jobs. We want to invest smartly and cut wisely, but we also care about
the education deficit. We care about the infrastructure deficit. We
care about disparities in education and health care based on class and
race and gender. We care about the lack of economic mobility for
millions of Americans in underserved urban areas and underserved rural
Appalachian areas, like much of the Presiding Officer's State which
borders an underserved rural area in my State. We care about these
deficits in our Nation. But what is greater is our deficit in the lack
of will to close them.
The question becomes, then, Do we have the will to do what is right?
Do we have the will to fight back in Ohio when the Governor and
legislature have eliminated collective bargaining, now effective in 90
days? Do we have the will to fight for the middle class? Do we have the
will to strengthen our country as we cut the budget to move toward a
balanced budget but not cut what matters for a productive, strong
middle class, for middle-class Americans, and for all those people in
Ohio and West Virginia and around this country who aspire to join the
middle class?
I yield the floor.
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