[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 214 (Thursday, December 17, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Page S7570]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            American Workers

  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, this spring, I was talking with a grocery 
store worker in Ohio, who told me: ``They call me essential, but I feel 
expendable.'' That grocery store worker and thousands of others who are 
on the frontlines of this pandemic risk their lives so that Americans 
can keep food on their tables and get their packages delivered. They 
change linen in hospitals. They drive city buses or rural buses. They 
stock shelves in supermarkets.
  When these workers go home at night, having been exposed to the 
public pretty much their whole workday, they worry they are going to 
bring the virus home and infect their families.
  It is essential workers keeping our society going. A number of 
American corporations claim to recognize this. They have run feel-good 
ads--at least they did early in the pandemic--saying ``thank you'' to 
essential workers, claiming these workers are the heart of their 
companies.
  But saying ``thank you'' is not nearly enough. Workers don't need a 
PR campaign. They need fair pay and protections on the job. These 
corporations get positive press off their workers while too often 
paying them poverty wages and, in too many cases, failing to protect 
their safety in the workplace.
  I wrote an open letter this summer to corporate executives, published 
in their paper of record, the Wall Street Journal. I said to these 
corporations: You say your workers are essential. Then treat them that 
way. Our economy is supposed to reward people whose talents are in high 
demand. That is what we are all taught. That is what you always tell 
us; right? These workers' skills keep our economy going. Their 
paychecks should reflect that.
  It has been 6 months since that letter was published. It may surprise 
no one to learn that my phone has not been ringing off the hook with 
calls from CEOs who want to discuss renewed efforts to invest in their 
workers.
  All that has changed is that corporate profits have gone up, hazard 
pay has disappeared, and more workers have died. Profits are up at most 
of the biggest companies, especially the largest retail companies.
  The Brookings Institution studied the 13 biggest retailers in this 
country and found that their earnings have shot up 39 percent compared 
with last year, and stock prices are up 33 percent. Guess how much 
wages have gone up. One dollar an hour.
  The Washington Post looked at the 50 biggest corporations. Between 
April and September, these companies handed out more than $240 
billion--240,000 million, $240 billion--to their stockholders through 
stock buybacks and dividends.
  It is workers making these companies successful. It is workers 
risking their lives on the job, but shareholders got nearly 8 percent 
of the profits workers created.
  Look at Amazon. The company's quarterly profits increased by a 
staggering 200 percent. But that same Amazon rolled back its tiny $2-
an-hour raise in June and announced a bonus of just $300 per worker. 
You heard that correctly--not $3,000 but $300, from a company that 
brought in $280 billion in revenue last year.
  If even a global pandemic, where American workers have been on the 
frontlines--if even that--will not get corporations to rethink their 
business model that treats workers as expendable, then, frankly, it is 
time--and my colleagues should hear this--to stop letting them run this 
economy.
  They had their chance. They failed. Just look around us. If corporate 
America won't deliver for its workers, it is time we step in and create 
a better system, centered on the dignity of work.
  The American people have made it clear that they want a government 
that is on the side of workers. Eighty-one million voters gave Joe 
Biden a decisive victory of more than 7 million votes. That is a 
mandate for change.
  In June, I laid out actions that corporations could take on their 
own, like raising base pay to $15 an hour. Since they mostly refused, 
we should raise the Federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.
  Workers are still not safe on the job. So President Biden can 
immediately issue an OSHA, or Occupational Safety and Health 
Administration, emergency temporary standard forcing corporations to 
protect their workers.
  Many companies still deny their employees paid sick leave, even 
during a pandemic. So we have to pass a national paid family leave 
plan.
  Corporations are expanding rather than ending their exploitive 
``independent contractor'' business model. So we are going to have to 
use the law to make them treat their workers as true employees. You 
know how they do it: Particularly large corporations will contract out 
custodial work, security work, and food service work in their company 
cafeteria, for instance. They contract it out to a private company that 
pays much less than the corporation pays, often wages barely above the 
minimum wage. Those workers should have to be treated like workers 
living under American labor law.
  Corporations continue to coerce workers out of forming unions. So we 
need to pass the PRO Act--Protecting Our Right to Organize Act--to 
empower workers with a voice in their workplace.
  The economy isn't physics. It is not governed by a scientific law 
outside our control. It is made up of people making choices about our 
values and in what kind of society we want to live.
  That is the reason we have an Occupational Safety and Health 
Administration. It is why we have these agencies: to make sure that 
workers are treated fairly to begin with.
  We have the power to change how the economy works so that it rewards 
work instead of greed. We can create more jobs at middle-class wages. 
We can give people power over their lives and schedules. We can expand 
economic security and opportunity for everyone.
  Americans voted for this change. Americans aren't going to wait for 
corporations to reform themselves on their own. That is for sure. They 
never have. They never will. It is up to the rest of us to deliver for 
the people whom we serve and create a country where all work has 
dignity.
  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. MARKEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.