[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 53 (Monday, March 22, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1665-S1666]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                   Nomination of Martin Joseph Walsh

  Mr. BROWN. Madam President, this pandemic has made it clearer than 
ever: It is not corporations that drive our economy; it is American 
workers.
  With Marty Walsh, for whom we will vote in a moment on confirmation 
for the Department of Labor, workers will finally have someone on their 
side, as the Department that is supposed to look out for them. The 
Department of Labor is supposed to be the voice for workers in our 
government. It is their job to make sure workers' rights are protected, 
that people are safe on the job, that everyone can organize a union and 
get the overtime pay they have earned.
  For 4 years, we have had a Department of Labor full of corporate 
lawyers. In fact, the Secretary of Labor was a corporate lawyer who 
made millions of dollars in court attacking labor unions and getting 
very well paid for it. That Department was full of people who made 
their careers fighting for corporate boards and CEOs, trying to squeeze 
every last penny out of workers and skirting labor laws.
  And we saw the results. The DOL stopped fighting to raise the 
overtime pay threshold. In my State, tens of thousands of workers and, 
nationally, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of workers failed to get 
a raise as a result.
  A year into the pandemic, the Occupational Safety and Health 
Administration, OSHA, still has not issued an emergency temporary 
standard to protect workers from coronavirus. When 1,300 workers last 
year got sick at a Smithfield meatpacking plant, they fined the company 
a pathetic $10 per worker.
  With Marty Walsh, that corporate infiltration of the Department of 
Labor ends now. Mayor Walsh will put the focus back where it should be: 
fighting for the people who make this country work.
  We know that for far too many Americans, hard work doesn't pay off. 
They have seen corporate profits go up. They have seen executive 
compensation skyrocket. They have become

[[Page S1666]]

more productive in the workplace, and yet their wages are flat.
  Hard work has never paid off for many Americans like it should. That 
is why voters sent a clear message in last year's election: They are 
tired of corporations running our economy.
  Corporations have had their chance. They failed. If corporations 
won't deliver for their workers and create an economy where everyone's 
hard work pays off, with a middle class that is growing instead of 
shrinking, then we have to step in and fight for workers.
  That is what Marty Walsh will do as the Secretary of Labor. He can 
work with OSHA to finally issue the emergency temporary standard, 
forcing corporations to take critical steps to protect their workers on 
the job. He can crack down on corporations that use subcontracting and 
independent contractors and other tricks to pay workers less and to 
deny them benefits.
  He can get to work on a new overtime rule so that hundreds of 
thousands more workers will finally get the overtime pay that they have 
earned. He can defend workers' rights to organize to give them power in 
their workplace and crack down on corporate union busting.
  And, as we know, Marty Walsh has the deep experience in the labor 
movement to get this done. Too many people in this town don't 
understand what it is like not to have a voice on the job, to have no 
power over your schedule, to work hard at a job that doesn't even pay 
the bills. They don't understand collective bargaining and the power 
that a union card gives you over your career and your finances and your 
future.
  Marty Walsh does understand that. At the age of 21, he joined the 
Laborers' Union Local 223 in Massachusetts. He knows what a union means 
to workers. He knows what workers are up against when they organize.
  Like President Biden, he is not afraid to talk about the labor 
movement, and he doesn't recoil from using the word ``union.'' He is 
not afraid to take on corporations that exploit their workers.
  We already see that change in action. President Biden and Vice 
President Harris have joined Senator Booker and me and so many of us in 
standing in solidarity with Amazon workers organizing in Alabama.
  Ultimately, it comes back to the dignity of work, the idea that hard 
work should pay off for everyone, no matter who you are, where you 
live, or what kind of work you do. Mayor Walsh understands that when 
work has dignity, people have power over their lives and their 
schedules--and they are paid a living wage. When work has dignity, 
everyone can afford healthcare and housing and childcare. They can save 
for retirement. They can take time off to care for their loved ones.
  Mayor Walsh has lived those values. He successfully helped push his 
State to raise the minimum wage to $15. He cracked down on wage theft. 
He fought for paid family leave.
  He knows how important it is for the people in the room making 
decisions to actually reflect the diverse workers who make our country 
successful. It is the job of the labor movement. It is the job of DOL 
to fight for all workers.
  As we work to build back better with a big investment in American 
infrastructure, Mayor Walsh understands all of the opportunities for 
workers that come with that. He comes from the building trades. He 
understands that we can put hundreds of thousands of tradespeople to 
work building houses and schools and public transit, retrofitting homes 
and offices and schools. We have a tremendous opportunity to rebuild 
our economy with workers--not corporations but with workers--at the 
center.
  If you love this country, you fight for the people who make it work. 
As Secretary of Labor, that is what Marty Walsh will do. I urge my 
colleagues to support him.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. COLLINS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  (The remarks of Ms. Collins pertaining to the introduction of S. 883 
and S. 885 are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on 
Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions.''
  Ms. COLLINS. I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.