Va Employee Fairness Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Mr. GREEN of Texas. Madam Speaker, I greatly appreciate the gentleman according me the time. I thank the ranking member for being here, a dear friend, as well.

Madam Speaker, and still I rise. I rise today as the Representative of those persons who work in the VA hospital in Houston, Texas, known as the Michael E. DeBakey hospital, one of the finest, in my opinion, because it is in my Congressional district, the finest VA hospital in the world.

I go there quite regularly. In fact, annually, we go into that hospital and we deliver flags to every veteran that is in the hospital. We will order a thousand flags this year to deliver to the hospital.

We give them a copy of the Constitution. We work with not only the administration but also the nurses and the doctors at the hospital. We are there for celebrations. We are actively involved with the VA.

This is one of the reasons why I believe I have some insight as to H.R. 1948. I support it fully, and I do so because it is the thing that every employee here has in our offices.

I shouldn't say every. If you are in management, I think you may be excluded.

But I voted for that to give them the right to organize, and I am talking about here in Congress. I also am a member of a labor union, Local 1550. I am a dues checkoff member. So it would be completely anathema to my philosophy for me to conclude that these nurses and these physicians should be denied rights that I have, when I'm a part of a labor union, or others do--and right here in Congress we have people with these rights--it would just be out of character for me.

That is just not all of it. I understand the importance and the value of the right to organize and to bring to the attention of people who can make a difference some of the issues that are impacting patients that the administration won't be aware of. And there are many people who won't want to speak up simply because they fear retribution.

The right to organize is the right to speak up and understand that you can do so without retribution.

I would also add that this right to organize does not accord the workers the right to strike. They are not going to go on strike. They are not going to shut down a VA hospital. They are not going to have the ability to cause the management to have to take some extreme measures. This is just to give people the opportunity to talk about the things that are important to the patients.

We are really doing something for the patients today. We are giving them more power by allowing the workers to organize.

Madam Speaker, I stand by what I have said, and I support H.R. 1948.

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