[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5026]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         IN SUPPORT OF H.R. 800

  (Mr. BRALEY of Iowa asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BRALEY of Iowa. Madam Speaker, I rise this morning in a pair of 
work boots that I have owned for 26 years to express my strong support 
for H.R. 800, the Employee Free Choice Act.
  I wore these boots when I worked for the Poweshiek County Road 
Department building roads and bridges on the county roads where I grew 
up. I wear them proudly today as a reminder of the hard work and 
sacrifice made every day in this country by working men and women who 
exercise their constitutional right to freedom of association by 
joining labor unions.
  The Employee Free Choice Act provides greater protection to that 
freedom of association by providing for majority sign-up, first 
contract mediation and binding arbitration, and tougher penalties for 
violation of workers' rights.
  Protecting the rights of workers has been a long and difficult 
struggle. Seventy-five years ago this month, Congress passed the 
Norris-LaGuardia Act, which declared it to be the public policy of the 
United States that employees be allowed to organize and engage in 
collective bargaining, free from coercion by their employers. The 
Employee Free Choice Act reinforces that public policy for labor 
negotiations in the 21st century.
  I am proud to be an original cosponsor of this important bill, and I 
look forward to the day when it is signed into law.

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