National Transgender Day of Remembrance
Floor Speech
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Mr. GARCIA of Illinois. Madam Speaker, before I begin, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on the subject of the Special Order.
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Mr. GARCIA of Illinois. Madam Speaker, first of all, I would like to thank Representative Pressley for dedicating this time in honor of the Transgender Day of Remembrance and, of course, naming many of the victims of violence who have met this fate simply for being who they are. As a member of the Equality Caucus, I am proud to call her my colleague and my friend.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green).
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Mr. GARCIA of Illinois. Madam Speaker, tonight, we find ourselves at a troubling time for all workers across the country: Income and wealth inequality are at an all-time high, and union representation is at a historic low. These facts mean that all workers have a harder time making ends meet.
It is time to reset the balance of power in our economy between working people and corporate interests.
For decades, collective bargaining rights have been under relentless assault, especially by the Republican Party, in an effort to disempower working people and hand our democracy to corporate America. Tonight, I am proud to bring together my colleagues from the Congressional Progressive Caucus and our friends to talk about the PRO Act.
The Protecting the Right to Organize Act is a landmark step to restore the rights of working people to join unions and collectively fight for fair wages and working conditions.
The PRO Act rebalances the scales between workers and corporations by enacting strong enforcement measures against employers who violate labor laws, strengthening the right to negotiate and organize unions, and empowering workers to report abuses of their rights.
I thank my colleagues for joining me to stand up for workers and their right to organize.
I also want to recognize the true creators of wealth in our economy, the working men and women of America.
To begin tonight's deeper conversation, I call on a person who represents a district that has been at the heart of growing the economy and driving the economy for average Americans over a long period of time. He comes from trade union organizing and represents an overwhelmingly working-class district in the great State of Michigan.
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Mr. GARCIA of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Scott, who, of course, is also the Chair of the Education and Labor Committee. Part of the reason why he knows so much about the bill is he happens to be the bill's chief sponsor.
Mr. Speaker, we are going to hear from another part of the country, and we are going to the West Coast to get a better understanding of why representatives in this House from all over the country are uniting behind this important piece of legislation.
Next, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Takano), who is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and also chairs the Committee on Veterans' Affairs of the U.S. Congress.
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Mr. GARCIA of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California. Before we go to the East Coast and hear the voices of working people there and why they support the PRO Act, I would like to share with you a brief story about myself in Chicago.
When I was growing up in Chicago, both of my parents were proud union members. In fact, they were both Teamsters. My father worked at a cold storage facility, and my mother worked at a candy factory on Chicago's West Side. Both relied on their union jobs to raise our family, and they retired on their union pensions, which enabled them to purchase a comfortable home for their family.
There will be more stories from Chicago, but right now I would like to go to the East Coast and hear from another member of the Progressive Caucus. He hails from the State of New Jersey. I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Norcross).
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Mr. GARCIA of Illinois. I thank the gentleman from New Jersey for sharing that wonderful story.
Women in this body overwhelmingly support the PRO Act for good reason. The PRO Act would help level the playing field and move all of us toward a greater sense of economic justice.
This evening, we are very fortunate to hear from a voice also from the East Coast who will get to the crux of why this is such an important tool for economic justice in our country. She is a member of the Progressive Caucus of this body and someone who is passionate and compassionate about providing equal opportunity for everyone in our country.
Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN. I thank the gentleman for yielding to me, and I thank the gentleman for taking on this Special Order hour and leading it.
Organized labor has always been the foundation of good-paying jobs that support a thriving middle class. That is why it is vital that we support legislation like the PRO Act, finally empowering the National Labor Relations Act to do the important work of protecting workers' rights.
Since the day that law was enacted in 1935, big businesses and their allies in the Republican Party have worked to weaken it. Their efforts have brought us to a point where union membership has cratered, and not coincidentally, inequality has grown.
The PRO Act implements penalties for employers who illegally fire workers because they try to form a union or are simply pro-union in their thinking. Today, we see employers out in the open on Twitter flagrantly violating the NLRA and threatening their employees if they even think about forming a union.
The PRO Act will allow workers to stand up and say to their boss: Joining together with my co-workers is right, and you will not threaten me with cuts to my hours, my pay, or my job.
This law will put an end to the practice of company bosses dragging their feet in collective bargaining negotiations in order to break the spirit of workers and avoid their legal responsibility to honor the wishes of their workers.
The PRO Act also recognizes the changing face of workers and ensures that those working multiple jobs do not lose their right to organize when they change shifts.
The part of this bill that I find most energizing is its protection of that most fundamental right of workers, the foundation of worker power from which all labor power is derived, the right to strike, the right to stand with your fellow worker and say: We will not accept these conditions another minute. We will not work another day until our demands are heard and our rights are respected.
The right to stand with your union sisters and brothers and withhold your labor is finally recognized under this bill.
If workers can put their sweat into building the greatest country in the world, how dare we say to them that they cannot join their fellow workers to demand a fair share of what they built?
This bill is the most important labor rights bill in years, and today, I am proud to be a member of the party of the working men and women, the Democratic Party, as we pass this bill. I thank the gentleman for the opportunity.
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Mr. GARCIA of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, if I could inquire how much time is remaining in the Special Order hour?
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Mr. GARCIA of Illinois. Before I introduce and as a prelude to the remarks that we will hear from the following speaker, I would like to share a story about the great city that I hail from and the great State that I represent here, the State of Illinois. It has a proud labor history that is filled with stories of courage and sacrifice by workers striving to organize.
Since the 1800s, workers organized in mines and factories fighting the abuses of powerful industrial interests. Chicago earned the reputation as a city of big shoulders, a working-class and hardworking city. Workers were killed in the Haymarket massacre of 1886, a struggle that led to the 8-hour day and the end of child labor.
The country's first national strike started in Chicago when train workers across the country joined a strike that began in Pullman, Illinois. Federal troops were sent in to break up the Pullman Strike, but it was so significant that Congress created Labor Day shortly afterward.
One of the Nation's most deadly mine disasters happened in Illinois in 1909. The tragedy prompted better enforcement of child labor laws and advanced the movement for workers' compensation.
Working people joining forces in unions helped lift up all workers across the country.
With that opening remark, Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield next to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Pocan), who also happens to be one of the cochairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
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Mr. GARCIA of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Wisconsin for his remarks.
So what is the essence of the Protect the Right to Organize Act? We have heard from my colleagues today about the many ways that unions have made America strong. From the 8-hour day to building the middle class, we have a lot to thank the labor movement for. Unions are an integral part of increasing wages and addressing income inequality.
Still, special interest-funded attacks on labor laws have eroded union membership for years. For too long, greedy companies have used extreme measures to stop working people from exercising their right to join together and negotiate for their rights and their working conditions.
While the economy is working very well for the wealthy, our middle class continues to shrink. The cause is simple: policy choices, especially by Republicans in the House at this time, in the Senate, in State legislatures, and the Presidency that have stripped workers of the power to stand together.
The Protecting the Right to Organize Act is a historical proposal that restores fairness in the economy by strengthening the Federal laws to protect workers' rights to organize.
We need the PRO Act at a time when Trump wages war against the labor movement. We need the PRO Act to build an economy that works for all working families and not just the wealthy.
The lessons I learned from unions--that individual justice is only as good as collective justice--continue to inform my career in public service, and I hope every worker can have the opportunities that unions gave me.
I got a chance to work at a young age. I joined a union. It helped me pay for my college education. I did well in the community that I still live in. That is why I approach banding together for the welfare of working people.
Tonight, you have heard from people from coast to coast, all over our country, from the South and from the heartland. These are individuals who are fighting for working people to, again, level the playing field and create a real purpose of economic justice to lift everyone up in our country.
As we move forward with the PRO Act, I call upon the American public to understand that it is time for economic justice and it is time for prosperity for all. And, with that, I ask them to call on their Representatives in the U.S. Congress to make this law a reality for all working men and women across the Nation.
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