Workforce Democracy and Fairness Act
Floor Speech
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Ms. MOORE. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I rise to make this motion today because I am opposed to the underlying bill, the so-called Workforce Democracy and Fairness Act.
Mr. Chair, I hope that all of my colleagues have gotten their tickets for this show, because once again my Republican colleagues have turned these hallowed Halls of Congress into a place for political theater or, better yet, a circus, and the joke is on working class Americans.
Today's so-called Workforce Democracy and Fairness Act is another scene in this unfolding plot to undermine American workers.
It would be comedy if it weren't such a tragedy for the American people. Every day, the American people are forced to play the part of the clown Pagliacci. They watch Republicans put on this performance, claiming to want to protect American jobs and workers while behind the scenes they work to dismantle the rights of the American worker and, like Pagliacci, the American people must learn to laugh with tears in their eyes.
Today's installment of tragic theater stars a bill which has been more appropriately renamed by my Democratic colleagues as the Election Prevention Act.
This bill would permit employers to delay indefinitely a union election by mandating delays in the union election process and failing to place limits on how long an election can be delayed. These delays would allow more intimidation and harassment of employees, including hiring union-busting companies.
This bill perverts the notion of employee free choice in the face of the power of an employer to indefinitely postpone an election.
In Wisconsin, Mr. Chair, we have seen this song and dance before under the guise of deficit reduction. Governor Walker undermined the workers' rights, rammed through legislation that cut State employee benefits and stripped unions of their collective bargaining rights.
Ohio, too, has seen this horrific curtain call. Governor John Kasich and the Ohio Republican legislature's passage of S.B. 5. But what Governors Walker, Kasich and so many others are not prepared for is the second act of this drama.
When the curtain opened on November 8 in Ohio, voters flocked to the polls in record numbers with a resounding voice and repealed S.B. 5. The staging continues in my State of Wisconsin, where in just 2 weeks we have garnered 300,000 signatures poised to recall Governor Scott Walker.
Mr. Chair, the American people will not be upstaged by this anti-union, anti-worker, and anti-family play. Our Nation's middle class is demanding to bargain for more of the wealth that they created.
Mr. Chair, this clear attack on workers' rights departs from a long-preserved tradition of American democracy in the workplace. It's time for us to close the curtain, pull the hook out on this circus act, and bring up the lights on real legislation that creates real jobs.
Mr. Chair, I would now yield to my colleague, the gen tle lady from Ohio, Betty Sutton.
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