[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16134-16135]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  CONTINUED DISCUSSION OF CONFLICT RESOLUTION AT PLUM ISLAND RESEARCH 
                                 CENTER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New York (Mr. Grucci) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GRUCCI. Mr. Speaker, I rise to address the House today and to 
share in a colloquy with the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Simmons), 
and to continue this discussion that we have been having on Plum Island 
and Plum Island issues.
  We have been talking about the need for this debate that is taking 
place about 50 cents for health care benefits to come to conclusion. 
One of the things that I have offered up, as I have been in constant 
communication with the members and the leadership of Local 30, and I 
have been in constant communication with the White House on this issue, 
and I have spoken to the Under Secretary and to the Secretary of 
Agriculture on this issue; I have spoken to a number of people at LL&B 
on this issue to bring this thing to conclusion, and we have offered a 
mediator to come in to mediate these problems.
  The gentleman whose name was put into consideration, and, I may add, 
has been accepted by the union as a viable alternative to the strike 
that we have going on out there, is the Commissioner of Labor for 
Suffolk County, Jack O'Donnell. Jack has a long and rich history in 
negotiating labor disputes between government and between labor and 
guiding them to a successful and complete resolution in the best 
interest of all parties concerned. We have not heard back from LL&B as 
to whether or not they would accept Mr. O'Donnell as the mediator, but 
we would encourage them to please consider this. It is very, very 
important that we bring this to conclusion.
  There is an issue about safety on the island. We care very deeply 
about that. Plum Island's animal disease research work is being done at 
bio-safety level 3. We are concerned that any change in that would have 
a Draconian effect on the safety of the community and the people who 
live in that area, as it would now be able to do diseases and work on 
diseases that have no known cures. So one of the things that I worked 
on on the Committee on Science, as Plum Island was moving to homeland 
defense, was that an amendment be added that for any change in 
operation, the Department of Agriculture or the new Homeland Defense 
Department, must notify Congress so that we can have our voices heard 
on this decision, so that those who work on the island, those who live 
in that community, and those who share a common boundary with Plum 
Island can make sure that their quality of life is safe.
  I yield now to my colleague, the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. 
Simmons), representing the Second Congressional District, as we share 
common ground, not only with the Long Island Sound, but with workers on 
Plum Island.
  Mr. SIMMONS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New York. I have 
had the opportunity to go to the picket line in my district in 
Connecticut and meet and talk with all of the workers there. They want 
to get back to work. One of them said his wife is 7 months pregnant. He 
is concerned about the future of his job. She is concerned about 
whether he will have enough money over the next couple of months so 
that they can deal with the arrival of a firstborn.
  Many of these workers have been out there for many years. They enjoy 
their work and they are good at it. But this contracting and 
recontracting and recontracting has degraded the numbers of the 
workforce and has put tremendous burdens and pressures on them. To take 
away pay and benefits at the same time and to ignore binding 
arbitration requests and, in fact, it appears to ignore a request for 
mediation that was supposed to have taken place on September 4, is 
ridiculous under the circumstances.
  Let me just share with the Chamber one situation we had a few years 
ago with the Naval Underwater Warfare Center in New London and in 
Newport, Rhode Island. When that facility was consolidated in Newport, 
all of the scientists who lived west of New London were now going to 
have to commute for an hour and a half to work. Many of the senior 
scientists retired or resigned because they did not want to do the 
commute. If Plum Island happens to be shut down because management 
cannot accommodate the marginal requests of the workers, where is this 
research going to be moved to? Ames, Iowa. And all of the dozens and 
dozens of skilled scientists and workers out there are

[[Page 16135]]

going to have to make this critical choice: Do I move to Iowa, or do I 
find another job?
  Mr. Speaker, we have a situation here which is ridiculous, because 
the capabilities of this facility that has been operated smoothly for 
50 years is now at risk, and at a time when bioterrorism and threats to 
the food supply are so critical, it is absurd, it is absurd that the 
debate over these nickels and dimes for health care should be allowed 
to be sustained.

                              {time}  1200

  Mr. GRUCCI. As my colleague will attest to, the work done at Plum 
Island has been exemplary. Those in the scientific community, those in 
the maintenance field, those who work on Plum Island have done an 
outstanding job, and it has just come to my attention that the teams 
did meet yesterday. We are hoping to bring them to conclusion.
  I see that my time has expired, but let me close by saying I am 
squarely in support of the union and the labor movement on this. I 
think they are right. This is an issue of 50 cents, and for LL&B to 
close out any opportunity for them to come to conclusion is wrong. We 
need to bring this to a successful end.

                          ____________________