[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 106 (Tuesday, July 23, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5831-S5832]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Mr. BROWN. Madam President, in 1935 Senator Robert Wagner of New York
introduced the National Labor Relations Act. Also known as the Wagner
Act, this bill would prove to be one of the most important pieces of
legislation in our Nation's history. This desk at which I sit was used
by Senator Hugo Black of Alabama, who was Franklin Roosevelt's favorite
southern Senator, they said, who later became a member of the Supreme
Court. Senator Black sat at this desk and helped draft legislation with
the National Labor Relations Act. In fact, he did some of the early
work on what would be the Fair Labor Standards Act. What he proposed as
a 30-hour workweek later helped Senator Wagner pave the way for the
Fair Labor Standards Act.
Before President Roosevelt signed the National Labor Relations Act
into law, American workers were routinely harassed and fired for
organizing unions. American workers were often intimidated and
prevented from bargaining collectively. The Wagner Act changed that.
One year after its passage in 1936, this law gave rubber workers in
Akron, OH, the legal tools needed to protect against poor working
conditions and to protest the conditions under which they were working.
The bill authorized an independent Federal agency consisting of
Presidential appointees confirmed by the Senate.
The National Labor Relations Board protects American workers. It
protects union members and private sector employees without a union
card--both--to work together to improve their wages or working
conditions. Today, the NLRB is needed perhaps more than ever.
Let me tell you a story real quickly, Madam President. A few years
ago I was in Cincinnati at a dinner, and sitting at the table in front
of me were six or seven middle-aged women--half White, half minority,
perhaps.
They had just signed their first union contract with the Service
Employees International Union. These five or six women were the
negotiators on behalf of 1,200 janitors negotiating with the downtown
Cincinnati business owners. There was an empty seat at the table, so I
went and sat down.
I said: What does having this union mean to you?
They had just signed the contract that day.
One woman said: I am 51 years old. This is the first time in my life
I have ever had a paid 1-week vacation.
Think about the number of Americans who do not have a paid 1-week
vacation. For people in jobs that dress like me, for the pages sitting
here, most of their parents, I imagine, are used to working in a place
where they get a 1- or 2- or 3-week paid vacation. Much of America does
not. That is just one of the things a union has brought to this
country--giving people those opportunities.
The reason I say the NLRB is needed perhaps now more than ever is
that in 2013 State legislatures are curbing collective bargaining
rights. Two years ago in Ohio, the State legislature and Governor
Kasich took away collective bargaining rights for all intents and
[[Page S5832]]
purposes for public-employee workers. The voters of Ohio said no to
that, and 61 percent of them struck that law down in a referendum. But
nonetheless the antiunion efforts from the most pro-corporate,
conservative, far-right State legislators in State legislatures across
the country continue unabated.
Workers are still being punished for discussing pay and bonuses with
one another.
For 78 years the NLRB has been instrumental in addressing the
challenges American workers faced. Senator Wagner explained on the
floor:
It is necessary to insure a wise distribution of wealth
between management and labor, to maintain a full flow of
purchasing power, and to prevent recurrent depressions.
We know that when workers make decent wages, workers buy the cars
made in this country, they buy the appliances, they go to the hardware
store, they pay their property taxes, they buy homes, they renovate
their homes, they do things that put money into the economy. If you
only have a sliver of people who are very wealthy and a declining
middle class, the purchasing power and the growth in the economy tends
to diminish. That is not the kind of country we want, and it is not the
kind of country we have had since World War II. But just a few years
after the great recession, there is a widening gap between the average
wage of workers and heads of corporations.
For families struggling to make ends meet after a breadwinner was
unfairly forced off the assembly line, the NLRB matters.
If we do not confirm the President's nominees, then workers, such as
Kevin from Akron, will have no recourse against retaliation for his
union activity. Kevin and his coworkers wanted to form a union to stop
a 12-hour shift policy from being put in place at their place of
employment. The company fired six workers, including Kevin, for this
union activity.
While the NLRB ordered the company to reinstate the workers--the NLRB
said the company was wrong; under Federal law, the workers should be
reinstated--the DC Circuit Court--in large part, with judges who almost
always do the bidding of the wealthiest corporations in this country--
the DC Circuit Court delayed enforcement of the case until the pending
challenge to the President's 2012 nominees is resolved in court or the
board has a Senate-confirmed quorum.
Kevin is a human face of why America needs a fully staffed National
Labor Relations Board with the legal quorum needed to do its job. We
should confirm these board members. We should make sure workers such as
Kevin receive the workplace protections--whether they are union
members, whether they are not union members--they deserve.
I thank the Presiding Officer.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. CASEY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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