[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2893]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       WE STAND WITH OHIO WORKERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Ohio (Ms. Sutton) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. SUTTON. Mr. Speaker, today people from across Ohio are gathering 
at the Statehouse in Columbus. They are gathering to speak up for 
workers and the middle class in this country. Last Tuesday, I went to 
Columbus and joined our brothers and sisters in our fight to protect 
the right of public employees to have a voice at the negotiating table. 
And as we gathered to oppose Senate bill 5, that backward effort of 
Governor Kasich and his Republican friends in the State legislature to 
eliminate collective bargaining, I was struck by the weight of the 
moment and by the weight of this fight. But I was inspired, too--
inspired to see thousands of people from across the State coming 
together to protest the radical measures that the Republicans were 
proposing.
  Though we can't be there today physically, we are there with those 
who gather at the Statehouse, and we stand with them from our place 
here in our Nation's capital. Last week, we were there shoulder to 
shoulder, people in common purpose, standing up for working families, 
standing together in the fight for the promise of the middle class.
  The unfair, backward-thinking attack on Ohio's firefighters, police, 
teachers, nurses, and other dedicated public employees must be stopped. 
And I'm proud to be standing with Ohioans that are fair-minded as we 
fight for progress, not for a return to old ways. Instead of pursuing 
this draconian measure attacking Ohio's working families, lawmakers at 
every level of government should be focused on the critical priority of 
getting people back to work instead of engaging in attacks on those who 
have chosen to teach our children, protect our communities, and keep us 
safe.
  Everyone should be working to strengthen our economy and create jobs. 
That, in turn, would generate the revenue we need to fairly compensate 
our public employees with the wages and the benefits which they have 
been promised and they have earned. The focus of all officials, as I 
said, across all levels of government, should be on creating jobs, not 
taking more from our workers. It was not our workers who drove the 
economy off the cliff. It was not our workers in Ohio. It was not the 
workers in Wisconsin. But it seems that the Republicans just can't stop 
themselves. Similar efforts to disempower working families and the 
middle class are occurring right here in Washington.
  It is not just collective bargaining for public employees that 
they're after. Two weeks ago, Republicans tried to pass a measure in 
Congress to prohibit the paying of prevailing wages and to stop local 
project labor agreements, which would put a hard hit on our trades 
people. They even tried to eliminate the National Labor Relations 
Board, the very board that exists as a referee to make sure that our 
workers get a fair shake.
  Yet they have not offered any job creation bills. And at the same 
time they are not creating jobs, they are defunding programs that have 
real benefits: their refusal to expand the trade adjustment assistance 
that helped workers who were displaced because of the trade policies 
that they pursued; the refusal of some to extend unemployment benefits 
to those who are out of a job through no fault of their own. At the 
same time they are working to not create jobs, they are also giving no 
assistance to those who are left without a job. It's issues like these 
that make it so important that we keep our heads up in Ohio.
  And to all of those who are out there in Ohio and across the country 
fighting this fight, it's an important fight, and what you do matters. 
It's important that we speak up and be heard so that the issues that 
matter to us so very deeply are well sounded. We have to stand together 
and work together and fight forward.
  Using the deficit as an excuse, there are those who are trying to 
convince the American people that a more fair economy would result in a 
much less efficient economy. But fairness and efficiency are not 
mutually exclusive. Using the deficit as an excuse to give a 
disproportionate hit to workers or unions is not the way to go.
  I would hope that the Republicans, both at the State level as well as 
here in Congress, would join with us to focus on what we really need to 
do, and that is to create jobs. And I would hope that they would stop 
the misguided attack on workers and the middle class.

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