[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 5042-5044]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     COLLECTIVE BARGAINING RALLIES

  Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about the rallies 
that have occurred all over this country today, and to add my voice to 
theirs. Today, Americans in all 50 States are gathering at hundreds of 
rallies and events to stand together in unity in defense of the 
collective bargaining rights of public employees--rights I believe are 
now under attack in Wisconsin, Ohio, and in other States across this 
country.
  That those demonstrations have been held today is no mere 
coincidence, for on this very day, 43 years ago, the Reverend Dr. 
Martin Luther King was killed in Memphis, TN, while standing up for the 
rights of 1,300 public sanitation workers.
  Working men and women gathered early today in Wilmington to declare 
``We Are One,'' and within the hour of this speech, thousands more will 
gather in Madison, WI, to protest what in my view is the scandalous 
move of Governor Walker to strip Wisconsin's longstanding collective 
bargaining rights from public-sector employees.
  Before coming to this body, I served as the county executive of New 
Castle County, DE, for 6 years. And before becoming Governor of 
Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker was also the county executive of 
Milwaukee County for 8 years. I understand the difficult choices 
executives face when they must adopt a balanced budget, even in the 
toughest of economic and fiscal times, for as county executive I too 
faced extremely difficult budget challenges, as did the Presiding 
Officer as the Governor of West Virginia.
  But I rise today because I know from my experience in cutting 
spending and in balancing budgets that it can be done without stripping 
American workers of their fundamental rights to organize and to 
collectively bargain. I know it because I have done it through 
collective bargaining and without resorting to blaming and draconian 
anti-union legislation.
  New Castle County, DE, is a mid-sized county government serving just 
over \1/2\ million people and has a budget of about $230 million. As 
the county executive, I confronted a real and growing budget problem. 
Our housing boom had masked deepening spending deficits that were 
unsustainable even before the economic collapse in 2008. As our 
national and local economies tumbled, our government's revenue did as 
well. I had already spent my first few years as county executive 
cutting spending each and every year in simple cuts, and we had only 
fundamental cuts in front of us.
  We had reduced library hours, ended popular public events, and made 
many difficult choices that many local governments and many State 
governments face today. But that wasn't enough. As with many State and 
local governments, our budget was three-quarters personnel costs, and 
we could not allow those costs to continue to grow as health care and 
pension costs boomed. We needed to cut our people cost to get our 
budget under control.
  Now, in the case of the county I formerly served, more than 80 
percent of the county workforce is represented by organized labor, 
mostly AFSCME, but also the FOP and IBEW as well--and we needed all 
groups to come together and share the sacrifice that lay ahead.
  It was just 2 years ago last week that I rose before our county 
council and delivered the hardest budget address I had ever given, one 
in which I laid out that we had two paths forward; one path would 
involve having all the suffering focused on about 150 to 200 public 
employees who would have to be laid off to balance our budget, and the 
other was sharing that sacrifice across our entire mostly unionized 
workforce.
  Ultimately, after many meetings, many negotiations, some very hard 
talk and debate--and yes, even at one point some layoffs--every 
bargaining unit in our county government came to the table, worked 
collaboratively, and helped us reach the goal of cutting 5 percent of 
our total personnel costs not just 1 year but, as the recession 
continued and deepened, a second year as well. Many of these great and 
dedicated public employees saw health care costs shift and benefit 
packages change as well. But together they were willing to share that 
sacrifice, to work in the best interests of our county and the public, 
and to acknowledge that we are one.
  In some ways, seeking a legislative solution such as has been done in 
Wisconsin, trying to simply strip away the right to be organized, to be 
at the bargaining table, might have seemed easier. Working together, as 
you know, as labor and management is not an easy path. No one wants to 
hear they have to do more with less, especially when it comes to their 
own paychecks. And public employees--in Delaware and all across this 
country--are, in my view, not just the backbone of our community but 
the backbone of our middle class. They are the policemen, the 
paramedics, the 911 call-takers, the emergency sewer repairmen, the 
librarians, the teachers, the health service workers, and the prison 
guards--the folks who keep our communities safe, healthy, and prepared 
for the future day in and day out.
  In my view, where public employees come together to organize and seek 
collective representation on workplace issues, we ought to respect 
those choices. Collective bargaining serves as a critical check on our 
system and its long and storied history is an important part of 
American history and American values. It is that check that led to the 
end of child labor practices, that led to the 40-hour workweek and the 
weekend, to workplace safety rules, and ended legal sweatshops. It is a 
critical check against excesses and overreach by management and by the 
marketplace.
  I stand here today to remind all of us that labor unions and the 
hundreds of thousands of public employees they represent in this 
country are not the enemy. We all know this country faces a 
significant, almost devastating national debt and annual budget 
deficit, and we are going to have to make shared sacrifices and tough 
choices to get through these next few years. But that does not require 
we strip the collective bargaining rights of the hundreds of thousands 
of public employees who serve us in the Federal Government, and the 
hundreds of thousands, even millions of public employees who serve our 
Nation at each and every level of government.
  More often than not, these are the employees who do the difficult, 
the dirty and the dangerous jobs that keep us safe and make our 
communities strong. They simply, in my view, do not deserve to be 
demonized but, rather, to be listened to, respected, and partnered 
with, as together we seek solutions to the challenges facing our 
country now and in the future. In my view, passing new laws to 
eliminate their basic collective bargaining rights is wrong, and we can 
do it better by working together.

[[Page 5043]]

  So today, I join with all those who are standing up for these 
fundamental rights of the American worker and join them in declaring 
``We Are One.''
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Will the Senator withhold his suggestion.
  Mr. COONS. Yes, Mr. President.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, I came to the floor for the same 
reason Senator Coons did. I appreciate the comments of the Senator from 
Delaware in the beginning of his first term in office. He obviously 
understands the importance of worker rights and the importance of 
collective bargaining.
  In my State, collective bargaining passed 30 years ago. Because of 
that, we no longer see the ``blue flu,'' where a police officer calls 
in sick. Because there was no ability to organize and bargain 
collectively, they would call in sick the same day. They had no other 
way of expressing themselves. We have seen significant labor peace, 
when we didn't always have labor peace on a lot of these issues prior 
to the early 1980s in my State, where we now have collective 
bargaining.
  My colleagues who have followed the news--I think people are very 
aware of this in my State--know that Governor Kasich recently signed 
legislation to take away those bargaining rights. That is why I have 
come to the floor today, in part, to celebrate We Are One, an 
organization that represents people of faith, people who belong to 
trade unions, people who care about economic justice, people who 
support strong community local services--the police, the firefighters, 
nurses, teachers--and who have come together to honor Dr. King.
  As Senator Coons mentioned, Dr. King was assassinated 43 years ago 
today because he was standing with workers in Memphis, TN--sanitation 
workers. Some of those workers had been crushed to death on the job by 
heavy machinery and had no ability to bargain collectively, no ability 
to fight for themselves. Most of them African American, most had no 
real rights to job safety, decent wages, or benefits. Dr. King 
understood that worker rights is a human rights issue, and that is why 
he stood up.
  The debate in statehouses across America--Wisconsin, Ohio, and in 
other places--is about collective bargaining, but it is really about 
rights, opportunities, and the future of the middle class. The American 
middle class, as Senator Coons pointed out, didn't happen by chance. 
Those aspiring to the middle class had to work hard and play by the 
rules in order to enter it. The middle class was created after people 
worked together to demand a minimum wage, safe workplaces, pensions, 
Social Security, and basic fairness. The middle class, in many ways in 
this country, was a direct outgrowth of the passage in this body some 
70-plus years ago of collective bargaining--the right of both private-
sector workers, then later public-sector workers, to organize and 
bargain collectively,
  Last fall we heard many of the Republican winners of elections in my 
State, and I think across the country, talk about the loss of jobs--the 
job loss that began during the Bush administration. When President 
Obama took office, we were losing 700,000 jobs a month. We are now 
beginning to gain jobs, and have done that the last 12 or 13 months, 
especially in manufacturing. We know manufacturing jobs create a middle 
class. But after winning these elections last fall in my State, instead 
of focusing on jobs, as they did during the election, too many 
politicians are governing by ideology and seeking to settle old scores. 
At a time when the middle class is struggling more than at any time in 
my lifetime, when workers are seeing their productivity going up and up 
and up but seeing their wages flatten or even seeing their hours cut 
back, American families are burdened by new attacks on their rights.
  About a month and a half ago, at a roundtable held in an Episcopal 
church on the statehouse square in Columbus, I was listening to nurses, 
teachers, police officers, and other public employees. I had heard from 
conservative politicians who wanted to cut off collective bargaining 
rights, to take those rights away, and those people making accusations 
that these firefighters and police officers and teachers were lazy, 
overpaid, had too much time off, had pensions that were too big, had 
health care benefits that were too generous. But as I was hearing all 
that from critics, I was listening one on one to these public 
employees.
  A young teacher, who had been teaching only about 10 years, told me 
that when she goes to the bargaining table, she doesn't just talk about 
wages and benefits but that she is negotiating for smaller class sizes 
as well. A police officer I talked to wasn't just talking about 
pensions and pay, he was negotiating for a bulletproof vest for him and 
his men and women colleagues who were also police officers.
  So these negotiations are not just for more money, more public 
dollars spent on behalf of these police, firefighters, teachers, and 
nurses; they are also about helping society, improving society, 
expanding on the middle class.
  It is clear those attacking collective bargaining are more interested 
in taking rights away than creating jobs. It is clear in Ohio. The bill 
that passed the House of Representatives would give Ohio the most 
restrictive voter regulation laws in the Nation that they would seek to 
limit our basic freedoms--restrict worker rights, restrict the right to 
vote, cut back on women's rights. Perhaps I am missing something, but 
how does that have anything to do with creating jobs and strengthening 
our economy?
  Let me, for a couple of moments, put a human face on all of this.
  I have a friend who is a firefighter named George, in Willoughby, OH. 
He wrote me this letter right after the Governor signed this 
legislation taking away his rights, taking away bargaining rights for a 
huge number of police officers and firefighters and teachers and health 
care workers and nurses and others. He said:

       I joined my proud profession knowing I would never be rich. 
     I truly joined knowing I would be helping people. I joined 
     knowing I would be able to raise a family. I joined knowing I 
     would have a pension in the end.
       As a 21-year-old kid entering this profession, I weighed 
     heavily on the ``helping people'' and the pure excitement of 
     the job. Now, as a 41-year-old firefighter who has been 
     beaten down both physically and emotionally, I will admit my 
     pension now plays a role, is my driving force to go to work 
     every day.
       I have always been the firefighter who the bosses look to 
     when a task needs doing.
       I will soon be a 42-year-old firefighter in my 21st year of 
     service. I am virtually 6.5 years from being able to retire. 
     This job has torn up my knees, requiring surgery to one of 
     them.
       This job has injured my back on several occasions, twice 
     requiring extensive time off to rehab. I am doing everything 
     possible to avoid surgery.
       This job has caused memories that will stick with me for 
     the rest of my life, the kind of memories that make you go 
     home and hug your wife and kids and thank God that they are 
     safe.
       I mention all this because, as you know, we as public 
     servants are being attacked in Ohio. We are being attacked in 
     our profession as well as our retirement. Our fundamental 
     rights and the foundation of our profession are being 
     attacked. Collective bargaining is the only way we have been 
     able to improve safety as well as maintain a quality of life 
     for our families. This system protects both the taxpayer and 
     the public servant from leaders on both sides who choose to 
     rule with an iron fist.
       I am now one of our beat-up senior firefighters who is 
     rapidly approaching retirement age. Where do threats of 
     pension changes leave me or the many others like me if I am 
     unable to finish my years of service due to injury? Where do 
     those threats of pension changes leave me if my employer 
     decides it is ``fiscally responsible'' to lay off higher-paid 
     beat-up senior firefighters to keep lower-paid younger 
     fighters?

  I will get back to the letter in a second, but my understanding is, 
under the legislation that Governor Kasich signed, management, then, 
would be able to say: This firefighter is more likely to get hurt. He 
is older and gets paid more, so we will lay off five of them in their 
forties and keep the younger ones. It is just too bad they are not 
going to have enough years to retire.
  That is what taking away collective bargaining rights, that is what 
busting

[[Page 5044]]

the union for these firefighters or police officers or teachers or 
nurses can do.
  Back to the letter:

       In Willoughby, due to economic conditions, we have not 
     replaced firefighters who have died or retired. In 1990 we 
     ran 2,100 incidents per year. In 2010 we ran just under 5,000 
     incidents.

  In 20 years it went from 2,100 runs to 5,000 runs.

       I am sure we are not the only city that continues to 
     operate understaffed with higher volumes.
       I consider myself a moderate when it comes to politics. I 
     have always voted for those who support me as a public 
     servant. That is what true public servants do.

  That was George, a firefighter in Lake County, OH, in Willoughby, 
just east of Cleveland.
  Again, this is not just about collective bargaining. It is what we 
want our country to be. Dr. King, whom we honor, who was assassinated 
43 years ago today--Dr. King delivered the 1965 commencement address at 
Antioch College, in Yellow Springs, OH, where Coretta Scott attended 
many years before. On the moral question of confronting poverty, Dr. 
King said:

       There is no deficit in human resources. The deficit is in 
     human will.

  Yes, we all care about budget deficits. We know we need to move 
toward a balanced budget. We know our first focus needs to be creating 
jobs. We want to invest smartly and cut wisely, but we also care about 
the education deficit. We care about the infrastructure deficit. We 
care about disparities in education and health care based on class and 
race and gender. We care about the lack of economic mobility for 
millions of Americans in underserved urban areas and underserved rural 
Appalachian areas, like much of the Presiding Officer's State which 
borders an underserved rural area in my State. We care about these 
deficits in our Nation. But what is greater is our deficit in the lack 
of will to close them.
  The question becomes, then, Do we have the will to do what is right? 
Do we have the will to fight back in Ohio when the Governor and 
legislature have eliminated collective bargaining, now effective in 90 
days? Do we have the will to fight for the middle class? Do we have the 
will to strengthen our country as we cut the budget to move toward a 
balanced budget but not cut what matters for a productive, strong 
middle class, for middle-class Americans, and for all those people in 
Ohio and West Virginia and around this country who aspire to join the 
middle class?
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________