[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 182 (Wednesday, November 30, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H7934-H7935]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         RIGHTS OF WORKERS TO ORGANIZE AND BARGAIN COLLECTIVELY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from

[[Page H7935]]

North Carolina (Mr. Miller) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MILLER of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, around the world, the 
rights of workers to organize and bargain collectively through a 
representative of their choosing, with their employer, over wages and 
benefits and conditions of employment, is recognized as an important 
human right and as a hallmark of democratic societies. But in the 
United States those rights have been under assault by some politicians 
and by some employers who want to turn the clock back three-quarters of 
a century.
  When workers want to join a union here and bargain collectively with 
their employer, too many employers intentionally delay and delay, 
abusing the legal system to deny their employees the rights that we 
scold developing nations for denying their workers.
  I rise in support of the proposed National Labor Relations Board rule 
to streamline and modernize union election procedures, an important and 
overdue step to restore fairness to our inefficient and outdated system 
that has allowed too many abuses. The new NLRB rule would speed up 
union elections, giving employers less opportunity to interfere 
illegally with organizing drives. The rule also allows smaller groups 
of workers to form unions.
  Under the current NLRB system, employers willing to break the law 
have many opportunities to delay a union election, stretching out the 
time period when they can intimidate and coerce workers, all in 
violation of the law. The effect of this rule is to help workers 
exercise their free choice to join and be represented by a union 
without illegal interference.
  Streamlining NLRB elections is a long overdue and small step to 
ensure workers the right to speak with one voice to a representative of 
their choosing.
  But, Mr. Speaker, in the last week we have heard that Brian Hayes, 
the only Republican member of the NLRB board, NLRB, is threatening to 
resign specifically to deny the board the quorum to act under the law, 
to deny the board the quorum to perform the duties that the law places 
upon them. Republicans in this Congress have now tried to defund the 
NLRB to take away the NLRB's ability to impose sanctions on employers 
who violate the law, and now they are trying to shut the board down 
altogether by abusing the other body's advice and consent powers to 
block any new appointments to the board and by having a Republican 
member resign specifically to deny the necessary quorum to act.
  Today, we are considering the so-called Workforce Democracy and 
Fairness Act; and despite that Orwellian name, the bill is designed to 
do the exact opposite. It is intended to deny workers the right to 
unionize without delay and litigation, to deny those rights through 
delay and litigation and by allowing employers to decide which 
employees, which workers get to vote on whether there is a union or not 
to stuff the ballot box, under this bill, to add new workers to the 
unit that will decide whether to have a union or not.
  Under the bill there would be a waiting period, if there is an 
election dispute, whether it's well grounded or frivolous, a waiting 
period for preelection hearing, a waiting period for unions to receive 
the better contact list; and the only goal for that, for those waiting 
periods, is delay. The arbitrary waiting periods ensure that election 
will be delayed, and nowhere is there any assurance the election will 
really be held.
  My Republican colleagues blame frivolous lawsuits for many of the 
ills of our country; but this bill would reward frivolous lawsuits by 
providing more time for employers to find fault, real or fabricated, 
with the election process; and by blocking the NLRB's current rule that 
would allow elections to move ahead before the complaints are resolved, 
this bill would allow employers to use litigation, frivolous or 
legitimate, to block elections.
  Finally, this bill would allow employers to stuff the ballot box with 
a radical rewrite of our labor law so that the employer would decide 
which employees, which workers get to vote. They can add employees who 
were never engaged in the organizing drive, and they can keep the list 
of voters of the workers eligible to vote from those supporting a union 
until just before the election.
  American workers deserve the same rights that we urge around the 
world for workers, the right to form a union, the right to speak with 
one voice and bargain with their employer so that our workers can win 
better wages and better benefits and rebuild the American middle class.

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