[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 140 (Tuesday, September 20, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1663]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            PROTECTING JOBS FROM GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. BETTY McCOLLUM

                              of minnesota

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 15, 2011

  Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Speaker, once again this Tea Party Republican 
majority is determined to ignore the jobs crisis in this country and 
instead focus the energy and efforts of Congress on busting unions and 
attacking the federally protected rights of workers to organize. This 
legislation is a direct assault on workers' rights in order to protect 
the profits of one corporation--Boeing. This legislation essentially 
tells 14 million unemployed Americans that their needs are irrelevant 
as long as there is a CEO in America who wants to crush a union.
  The National Labor Relations Act, a Federal law, prohibits a company 
from taking actions, such as firing an employee or relocating a 
factory, against workers for exercising federally protected rights that 
include forming a union or striking. The National Labor Relations Board 
(NLRB) filed a complaint against Boeing in April 2011, accusing the 
airline manufacturer of building a plant in South Carolina as 
retaliation against union employees in Washington State who have 
engaged in strikes. The Seattle Times quoted one Boeing executive as 
saying that the main factor for putting the new plant in Charleston, SC 
was ``. . . that we cannot afford to have a work stoppage, you know, 
every three years.''
  The legislation on the floor of the U.S. House today, H.R. 2587, is 
the Tea Party Republican attempt to reward a corporation that breaks 
the law in order to bust union workers. Rather than negotiate with 
union workers to reach contract agreements, Boeing built a new $750 
million facility in South Carolina. This legislation in essence 
sanctions any company in America to move their operations to any low-
wage location where workers' rights are ignored, whether inside or 
outside the U.S.
  Tea Party Republicans have titled this bill the Protecting Jobs from 
Government Interference Act, but it really should be called the Busting 
Unions and Outsourcing Jobs to Protect Corporate Profits Act. It is 
remarkable that Members of Congress can vote to sanction the export of 
U.S. jobs to other countries just to ensure corporate friends can 
squeeze every dollar of profit available out of their low-wage workers. 
This legislation is truly a betrayal of the American people, but it 
fits into the alarming trend advocated by Tea Party Republican 
legislators at the State and Federal level to eliminate worker rights 
and protections. If their goal is to return to the days of sweatshops 
and the abuse of workers they are certainly moving in that direction.
  I truly hope that every Minnesotan who is a member of a union, 
retired from a union, or has a loved-one in a union is paying attention 
to what is happening in America. The corporate elites and the 
legislators their secret money have paid to elect are destroying 
workers rights. This U.S. House of Representatives, once known as the 
People's House, now appears to be owned by corporations. Our democracy 
is at risk along with the rights of workers and the wages of every 
middle class American.
  This legislation is a harbinger of the battle working people, regular 
Americans, face as corporations dictate to elected leaders. I oppose 
H.R. 2587 and I oppose the union busting, anti-working American agenda 
it represents.

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