Trump's Labor Agenda: Unsafe and Underpaid

Floor Speech

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Ms. STANSBURY. Mr. Speaker, I am here tonight to stand union strong with our workers across America and in solidarity with my sister from New Jersey, Representative McIver.

We stand union strong, labor strong, America strong, and worker strong.

Mr. Speaker, I think it is notable, as we stand on this floor tonight, that there is not a single Republican here to stand with our workers.

Let's be honest: When my colleagues across the aisle say that they stand for American manufacturing and American jobs, they don't mean that they stand with American workers. They are there to stand with the corporations and the people who line their pockets off of the sweat of the hardworking men and women who actually do the work in this country.

Unfortunately, as I look around this floor this evening, I don't see a single one of them standing in solidarity.

Under this administration, we have seen an unprecedented attack on our unions and worker protections. Protections that keep our workers safe from injury, illness, and death on the job, all to shield employers from accountability and to increase their profits.

Instead of standing with workers, they weakened rules on overtime, rolled back safety standards, and gutted protections for wage theft. If you want any indication where the current President stands on the Department of Labor and American workers, all you have to do is walk down the street and you will see a three-story picture, not of the American worker on the front of the Department of Labor, but of Donald Trump's face, who spent American taxpayer, hard-earned dollars to put his face on the Department of Labor, which is the United States agency that is supposed to demand protections for our workers.

Now, for me this isn't just political. It is personal because I grew up in a labor family. My mother was a factory seamstress. In fact, she sewed 79,000 pockets on jeans and tried to organize a garment workers union at her factory and was fired for trying to demand fair wages for factory seamstresses like herself and thousands of women and people across the country who work every day for this country.

She was fired for daring to demand better conditions and higher pay, but it is her grit and her determination and her belief in the dignity of workers that I carry with me into this Chamber every day because even upon her firing for trying to organize as a factory worker, my mother became one of the first women operating engineers to work on heavy equipment in the State of New Mexico. That is the spirit I see all across our State.

Just last week, we stood in solidarity with striking workers and our Teamsters local at the Creamland Dairy fighting for fair wages and safe conditions. That solidarity has resulted in a fair wage and a new labor contract for those workers.

At the University of New Mexico, we stood with graduate students who were holding work-ins as they demand a fair contract. We stood with SEIU and our residents in our medical schools who are demanding fair pay. We are standing with our teachers who are demanding fair pay. And we stood with the Wells Fargo workers in Albuquerque who made history in becoming the first unionized branch ever in the history of this country. It was that solidarity, when we stood with 80,000 flight attendants stuck in endless negotiations, which helped us to get fair wages and a new contract for our flight attendants.

That is what it means to stand for workers. It is not just speeches and pictures on buildings, but it is action in standing with our unions and standing for fair pay because, Mr. Speaker, the theme here is simple: Workers just want a fair shot and they want dignity.

Unfortunately, under this administration, the rug is being pulled out from under their feet. It is shameful, dangerous, and it flies in the face of everything that this country was built on because let us not forget that unions built this country.

It is unions that gave us the weekend. It is unions that gave us the 5-day workweek. It is unions that gave us overtime pay. It is unions that gave us safe workplaces. It is unions that gave us fair wages. Every worker in America benefits from the courage of organized labor and every man and woman who has stood for their fellow workers.

Mr. Speaker, I will end with this. I know where I stand. I stand with my mother and the countless generations that come before us of workers across the United States and in my home State who stood with the American worker. We will always stand for unions, we will always stand for labor, and we will always stand for the American worker.

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