Standing in Solidarity with United Steelworkers

Floor Speech

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Mr. MRVAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in solidarity with the hardworking men and women of the United Steelworkers who have been locked out of their jobs for almost 2 months at the British Petroleum facility in Whiting, Indiana.

Since day one under the administration's Project 2025, we have seen attacks against organized labor, the gutting of the Department of Labor, and a National Labor Relations Board that only sides with corporate interests.

At the same time, an estimated $8 billion hydrogen project at the same British Petroleum facility was canceled after the administration demanded that the tax credits be removed in the Republican reconciliation bill to offset tax cuts for the corporations and the most wealthy.

This project would have created new energy, put these union men and women on the job today, creating new economic activity and jobs for a generation. Instead, they are locked out.

Union workers also undergo specialized training to operate in this high-risk environment at a refinery. Today, the replacement workers not only put their lives at risk but everyone in my community.

I continue to call on British Petroleum to lift the lockout, to realize negotiation is not accepting the terms that created the lockout, and be able to return to good-faith negotiations and put skilled workers back on the job before a preventable tragedy occurs simply due to corporate greed.

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