[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 91 (Monday, June 4, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S2959]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Union Organizing

  Mr. President, last week, American workers had a victory. Boeing 
flight technicians in South Carolina voted to join a union for the 
first time, giving them a voice in their workplace and the freedom to 
bargain for the pay and the benefits they have earned. This will make a 
tremendous difference in the lives of those workers, but we know far 
too many Americans aren't so lucky. Tens of millions of Americans have 
no voice in the workplace, and when they try to organize a union, they 
are almost always met with resistance from corporations at every turn.
  Boeing fought these workers' efforts tooth and nail. The corporate 
leaders used every trick in the book to try to prevent these workers 
from organizing and from standing up and speaking with a collective 
voice. It took three tries for workers to finally overcome that 
corporate obstruction. Their fight is not over. Boeing is appealing the 
results of the election in a last, desperate attempt to silence these 
workers.
  For too many workers, hard work doesn't pay off. They are paid less, 
and they have little economic security. Corporate profits have gone up. 
The GDP has gone up. Executive compensation has gone up. Executive 
salaries have skyrocketed. Workers, simply, haven't shared in the 
wealth they have created.
  More workers have no control over their own schedules. They work odd 
hours. They have no paid sick leave and no overtime pay. Companies use 
temporary workers and independent contractors to pay people less for 
the same work. Workers on the traditional payroll have often seen their 
wages and benefits stagnate and their job security whittled away. That 
is what happens when workers have no voice and no power in the 
workplace. We have to change that because it is not corporations that 
drive the economy; it is workers.
  We know it from the way we write tax bills here. When we write a tax 
bill that focuses on the middle class and gives tax breaks to them, the 
economy grows because you build the economy up. When we pass a tax cut 
here, overwhelmingly, it goes to the wealthiest people and the largest 
corporations. The trickle-down effect creates very, very few jobs. When 
workers can bargain for higher pay and better benefits that reflect the 
dignity of work that they do, we are all better off. That is how you 
grow the economy.
  This victory for Boeing's workers is a small but important step in 
the right direction. Now we need to give workers all over this country 
the same power in their own workplaces.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Lankford). The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.