[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16954-16955]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        SO-CALLED RIGHT TO WORK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, as a Representative from Ohio, a State that 
borders Michigan, I rise to stand in solidarity with the workers of 
Michigan. Many Ohioans I represent actually drive to work in Michigan. 
And due to the high-handed actions of Michigan's Governor and its 
legislature, they actually railroaded legislation through Michigan, 
with no hearings, to take away the rights of Michigan workers to fund 
the collective bargaining process that results in living-wage worker 
contracts.
  The workers of Michigan are fighting to maintain their rights to a 
fair day's wage for a fair day's work. I support their rights and the 
rights of every American to organize and negotiate by contract for 
proper pay and benefits, regardless of which State they live in. The 
rights of labor by contract are critical to growing our middle class, 
as opposed to rights by happenstance that are always up for grabs, 
where workers have no rights and live in fear of the future.
  Michigan's Republican ideologues passed so-called ``right-to-work'' 
legislation. Well, let's be clear: the bill being pushed there by the 
far right should really be called the Right to Work for Less. And that 
is exactly what President Obama called it. To quote Bob King, the 
visionary president of the United Auto Workers of this country:

       Every right-to-work State has lower wages, lower benefits, 
     less security for workers and more income inequality.

  And they have a shrinking middle class. The UAW is right: if you 
happen to live and work in a State that has a so-called right-to-work 
law on the books, you earn an average of $5,000 less a year than if you 
lived in a worker rights State. The bill signed last night in Michigan 
strips labor organizations of their right to collect dues to cover the 
cost of negotiating a collective bargaining agreement.
  The Michigan law is pure politics. No, it is more than that. It is an 
old-school union-busting technique, pure and simple. And in Michigan 
and Ohio, we know a lot about union busting. As a daughter of auto 
workers, I know the history of the hired goons who bludgeoned auto 
workers back in the 1930s at River Rouge as workers began to stand up 
for their human rights as they labored in the dungeons of the 
automotive production facilities at the time.
  I actually would like to challenge the Governor of Michigan to come 
with me and let's work on the line for a month in one of those 
repetitive-motion jobs that make and characterize modern automotive 
production. They're not easy jobs. I would like him to install the 
windows on the right side of a vehicle as it moves down the line over 
and over and over and over and over and over again. Let's see how much 
fun he'll have.
  A year ago, we in Ohio witnessed a similar effort to eliminate 
unions. Right-wing legislators moved through legislation that would 
have ended collective bargaining as we know it in Ohio for public 
sector workers. We're talking about firefighters, police, and teachers. 
Well, the people of Ohio broadly rejected that union busting earlier 
this year.

                              {time}  1100

  Citizens organized a ballot initiative to restore worker rights in 
Ohio, and they won. It was called Issue 2. The people of Ohio voted to 
overwhelmingly protect the rights of those who protect us and who teach 
our children.
  While worker rights were protected in Ohio, up north, what was done 
in Lansing, intends to extend far beyond the borders of just Michigan. 
It will impact workers who commute from my State of Ohio and Indiana.
  This is about more than just one State. In fact, this is a national 
issue, not a states' rights issue at all. The Michigan union-busting 
bill is a direct result of weak Federal legislation, and I'm talking 
about section 14(b) of the Taft-Hartley Act, which weakens the rights 
of labor. Congress should overturn that part of the law and reaffirm 
its role in protecting the internationally recognized labor rights of 
every American citizen.
  That is why I have joined a number of my colleagues in introducing 
legislation, H.R. 2775, that would do just that. We should not have 
individual States competing against each other in a race to the bottom. 
Haven't we seen enough of that?
  We need to support and build back the American middle class by 
creating good jobs, good-paying jobs, and secure benefits through 
secure contracts. I stand attired in red today in solidarity with the 
workers of Michigan, and I am proud to do so.

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