Tribal Labor Sovereignty Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. POCAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Ranking Member Scott.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to oppose H.R. 511. One of the most important
things we can do in this body is help the middle class to have every
opportunity for their family.

While the economy has been rebounding, unfortunately, wages for the
middle class have remained flat. Productivity is up. Profits are up.
CEO pay is up. But wages for most workers have remained flat. Now we
have a bill before us that will make it harder for hundreds of
thousands of workers by taking away National Labor Relations Act
protections from them.

Now, the promoters of this legislation say this bill is designed to
protect sovereignty. While I strongly support tribal sovereignty, this
bill is not about that.

There are a number of Federal laws that tribes are compelled to
follow in addition to the National Labor Relations Act: the
Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Employee Retirement Income
Security Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and the public
accommodations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, just for
starters.

This bill isn't about meaningful sovereignty. It is about selective
sovereignty because it only excludes labor rights, which makes this a
labor bill, not a sovereignty bill.

It would even affect workers who already have collective bargaining
agreements, stripping away the rights they have collectively fought for
and have agreed to.

Many of the advocates for this bill are hardly credible on this. The
U.S. Chamber and other organizations have never taken strong stances on
tribal issues in the past, issues like spearfishing and mascot names in
my home State of Wisconsin or funding to address the crumbling
infrastructure of Bureau of Indian Affairs schools.

But suddenly they support sovereignty. Well, history says otherwise.
If this bill is about sovereignty, exempt OSHA and ERISA and FMLA and
ADA, for starters--that would be a sovereignty bill--or require the
tribes at least to have their own labor relations boards, which they
don't have.

This bill only exempts labor protections for hundreds of thousands of
workers, both tribal members and nonmembers. Those affected workers
will be denied their fundamental rights under this bill, and that is
what this is really about.

Mr. Speaker, if this body wants to help tribes, I am here to help. If
you want to make it easier for Federal tribes to be recognized via the
Carcieri fix, I am in.

If you want to provide more adequate funding for Indian Health
Services and exempt them from future sequestration cuts, where do I
sign up?

If you want to provide funding for the maintenance infrastructure as
well as the educational needs for Bureau of Indian Affairs schools, I
am with you.

If you want to address some of the Tax Code disparities that hinder
tribes from encouraging economic development on their lands, especially
renewable energy projects, let's do that bill. But we are not
addressing the real pressing issues that affect tribes in our country.
Instead, we are only going after workers' rights in the veil of tribal
sovereignty, and that is wrong.
Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``no'' vote.

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Mr. POCAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise for a few of the things we have not
heard on the other side of the aisle. I have heard a lot about
sovereignty, but we have asked explicitly about other areas, one being
OSHA. We have asked explicitly about ERISA. We have asked explicitly
about the ADA. Why aren't those in here if this is a sovereignty bill
and not just an antilabor bill?

In fact, on the Education and the Workforce Committee, I don't think
a month goes by, Mr. Speaker, that we don't have a hearing that attacks
the National Labor Relations Board and their actions or some other
labor-related activity. It happens as often as you can imagine.

Yet, here we are being told this is really about sovereignty, but we
don't really engage in a debate about sovereignty. Where we have a
problem is on the labor front and what it would mean to working
people--to the hundreds of thousands of people, 700,000 people-plus--
who would lose their rights if this were to be passed.

One of the things that was said that is simply not correct is that a
number of tribes have their own labor practices. Here is the reality.
According to labor employment law in Indian Country--in a book from
2011 that is specifically about labor law and tribes--of the 567
federally recognized tribes, ``few tribes have implemented labor
ordinances, other than right-to-work provisions, to govern labor
organizations and collective bargaining.''

In fact, when you look at specific tribes, what has been passed, all
too often, unfortunately, are things like right to work, which takes
away the ability to have that collective bargaining right.

If we are going to have this debate about sovereignty, let's talk
about sovereignty, let's talk about the funding for the Bureau of
Indian Affairs' schools, let's talk about lifting some of those tax
laws that make it harder for them to invest in renewable energy. Let's
talk about those laws and not just the ones you want to.

This is like when I was a kid. When I had to take a pill, it came in
the middle of something sweet. You are trying to take something really
bad, like taking away workers' rights, and are putting it in a tribal
bill because we support the tribes and because we support the unions,
and you want to split that up.

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Mr. POCAN. I thank the gentleman.
Mr. Speaker, the bottom line is we just want to have that debate.
Let's talk about sovereignty. But I am not hearing anything about the
other issues that affect the tribes.

I have a tribe in my district, as we have many tribes in Wisconsin,
and I have had a good, long relationship in my time in the legislature
with these tribes. I have fought on behalf of changing Indian mascot
names. I have fought on behalf of making sure that they have
spearfishing rights in the State of Wisconsin.

The U.S. Chamber and all of those groups were never there. The U.S.
Chamber is only here because they want to go after workers' rights.
This bill is only here because you want to go after workers' rights.
Let's just be honest about it.

If you want to have a debate on sovereignty, talk about the many
issues we have brought up, because that is not what this bill is about.
I support tribal sovereignty. I also support the many people who work
in these facilities. We have to ensure that they still have the
protections. I urge a ``no'' vote.

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