Workforce Democracy and Fairness Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Chairman, this legislation will delay workers' attempts to unionize and will deny Americans their fundamental right to bargain collectively.

In the next 3 weeks, we have jobs legislation to consider, middle class tax cuts and unemployment benefits to extend, a 2012 budget to pass. The Labor,
Health and Human Services, Education Appropriations Subcommittee has not even seen a bill yet; and yet just as they have all year long, the majority has chosen to waste precious time--time that we should be spending on the people's business--to continue their misguided war against workers' rights.

Once again, the majority has put forward a bill that has no other purpose than to roll back hard-won gains by American workers and erode the right of collective bargaining in this country. The legislation before us attempts to deny the right to form a union by imposing excessive delays on the process, stifling the flow of information to workers, and looking the other way while workers' rights are being violated.

How long is this majority going to persist in this wrong-headed crusade against hardworking American men and women, the same hardworking men and women who built the middle class of this Nation? Last month the CBO found that wages have stagnated in this country and median income has fallen in recent times, even as the income of the top 1 percent has tripled. It is no coincidence that this has happened while union membership has decreased. But the majority persists in trying to squeeze middle class workers and accelerate this race to the bottom.

This is not the American way, and it is not what the American people want. In Ohio last month, they rejected yet another Republican attempt to eviscerate the right to collective bargaining. It is time to stop these attacks on basic American rights. It's time to roll up our sleeves and get to work on creating jobs, reducing the deficit, and restoring economic growth to this Nation.

Say ``no'' to this legislation.

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