[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13820]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                          VALUE OF THE UNIONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 19, 1999, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kucinich) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 2 minutes.
  Mr. KUCINICH. Madam Speaker, Madam Speaker, my father, Frank 
Kucinich, senior, was a truck driver and he drove a truck for 35 years, 
and he was proud of the work that he did, and he was also proud to be a 
member of Local 407 of the Teamsters Union.
  I grew up with a heritage of believing in the importance of people 
belonging to an organized labor group, and as I was growing up, I saw 
how my father would attend union meetings. And I would have the 
occasion to go with him to some of those meetings. And I heard people 
talk about their desire for a better wage, not just for themselves, but 
for their families. I heard people talk about the desire for improved 
health care benefits, not just for themselves, but for their families.
  I heard people talk about retirement security, not just for 
themselves, but for their families, and so what I saw in growing up in 
Cleveland, Ohio was men and women coming together to try to improve not 
only their lot but the lot of their families.
  All across this country, working men and women are going to work 
every day with the intention of building a better quality of life, and 
the only way they can do that is to stay united, and that is what 
unions are all about. In unity there is strength. And across this 
country, men and women have been able to have a better wage level and 
because of that have helped to assure higher wages in the nonorganized 
sector.
  Across this country, men and women have been able to have better 
health benefits, better retirement benefits because they have united, 
and that is something that is profoundly American. We have communicated 
to the world this idea that in unity there is strength, and through 
working men and women organizing we have demonstrated that even the 
humblest person should have an opportunity to have a position at the 
table of great power and that the humblest person in joining with 
others can have some control over his or her destiny and over his or 
her quality of life.

                              {time}  1300

  I am glad to be part of a Democratic Party which supports working men 
and women.

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