Protect America's Workforce Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. MANNION. Mr. Speaker, as our government employees had their rights violated and were treated poorly, spending is up.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Protect America's Workforce Act. I am a proud cosponsor of this bipartisan legislation to restore collective bargaining rights to hundreds of thousands of Federal workers.

I was raised in Syracuse, New York, in a union household. My mother was a proud CWA member at New York Telephone, and my father a proud union member at New York Central Railroad. I also served as the president of a 400 member teachers' association union representing teachers, nurses, school psychologists, and social workers.

Those who have a union worker in their family understand the guarantee that comes with the union card: fair pay, solid benefits, a secure retirement, and a real path to the middle class.

The indiscriminate stripping of collective bargaining rights through executive action was an illegal gray area if not outright unlawful.

This legislation ends that ambiguity. It should never have been a partisan issue.

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Mr. MANNION. I am grateful to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for working together toward this meaningful solution. My father always said that a job is more than a paycheck. It is about dignity. All work is dignified when providing for your family.

Mr. Speaker, the Protect America's Workforce Act lives up to those ideals. Behind every family's American Dream is a good job and often a good union job.

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