[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 11101-11102]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  STAND UP AGAINST RIGHT TO WORK LAWS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Quigley) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. QUIGLEY. Mr. Speaker, Ronald Reagan once said: ``Where free 
unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost.''
  When President Reagan made those remarks in 1980, he recognized then 
what many can't seem to understand now: efforts to undermine unions are 
an attack on workers' rights.
  Unions have long been the foundation of our middle class and helped 
create the most competitive workforce in the world. The 40-hour 
workweek, minimum wage, sick leave, workers comp, overtime pay, and 
child labor laws are just a few of the basic labor rights that unions 
have championed over the years that many now take for granted; yet for 
all the good that unions have done to empower all workers across this 
country, there has been a recent revival in the war against them, and 
the weapon of choice has been right to work laws.
  Don't be fooled by the name. The only thing right to work laws do is 
unfairly allow free-riding workers to benefit from union-negotiated 
contracts without having to contribute their fair share in the fight. 
The laws do not, as many supporters complain, protect workers from 
being forced to become union members. In fact, Federal law already 
restricts this.
  In union States, workers covered by union-negotiated contracts can 
only be required to pay for the cost of bargaining and not for any 
other union activities.
  However, over the last few years, there has been an alarming increase 
in antiunion sentiment. Currently, half of our States have right to 
work laws, with Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin recently passing their 
own versions.
  In my own home State of Illinois, Governor Rauner has made passing 
right to work a top priority. In fact, he is making this a cornerstone 
of his first-term legislative agenda.
  The idea behind his right to work law is that by increasing the 
number of free-riding workers, unions will be forced to drastically 
reduce their budgets, weakening their ability to negotiate stronger 
contracts and defend the rights of American workers, but the evidence 
clearly shows how misguided this stance is and the attacks on organized 
labor truly are. For instance, research shows that 7 of the 10 States 
with the highest unemployment rates are right to work States.
  On top of that, we know that even if half of the counties in Illinois 
adopt right to work laws, we would see the State's annual economic 
output shrink by $1.5 billion, labor income fall by $1.3 billion, and 
an increase in both racial and gender income inequality.
  If right to work laws are not actually good for the economy, what are 
they good for? Right to work laws do a great job at harming hard-
working middle class families, widening income inequality, and 
weakening unions. Right to work States have seen almost a 10 percent 
decline in unionization, which has undermined growth in wages and led 
to the deterioration in workplace safety.
  In right to work States, wages for all workers, not just unionized 
workers, are over 3 percent lower than in non-right to work States. 
That is about $1,500 less per year in the pockets of teachers, 
firefighters, nurses, and other hard-working Americans.
  Furthermore, injuries and deaths in right to work States are much 
higher than in non-right to work States. In the high-risk environment 
of construction, where unions have played a fundamental role in 
demanding adequate safety standards, deaths are 34 percent higher in 
right to work States than in non-right to work States.

[[Page 11102]]

  As you can see, right to work is not right for our country, not right 
for our States, and not right for our workers. Using right to work as a 
strategy to lower wages and attract more businesses is not a suitable 
and sustainable strategy.
  Instead of focusing on attacking unions and middle class workers, 
Governors should focus on fixing broken budgets and investing in our 
schools, public safety programs, and transportation systems. That is 
the real recipe for economic success.
  Let's stand up against right to work laws and stand up for the right 
to organize, the right to a safe job, and the right to a fair wage.

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