Labor

Yesterday, my subcommittee held a hearing into whether employees are able to exercise their right to decide whether or not they want to organize a union in their workplace.  Unfortunately, as we heard, a small number of coercive employers have obstructed any effort to allow their workers to organize unions. The workers who supported unsuccessful union campaign were suspended, demoted, or even fired by their employer.  Research has shown that during organizing campaigns, a quarter of employers illegally fire at least one worker for union activity.

I am very concerned that these activities have eroded the basic underpinnings of middle class life: decent wages and benefits. For the past six years, middle-class workers in my district and across the country have seen their wages and benefits shrink even as corporate profits and executive compensation have soared. The reality is that workers in unions earn 30 percent more in wages than non-union workers and 80 percent of union workers have health insurance while only 49 percent of non-union workers do. Read more...

I strongly oppose a bill introduced in the House, the so-called “Employee Free Choice Act, Read more...

The Employee Free Choice Act -- introduced in the House last night by Congressman George Miller and expected to be introduced in the Senate by Edward Kennedy soon -- brings fresh hope to millions of America’s workers who desperately want and need the free choice to join or form a union to improve their families’ lives.

America isn’t working the way it should for working families. Income inequality is growing. The middle class is shrinking. Working people are barely keeping up. They’re struggling to pay for health care and worried about retirement. Ordinary Americans are being left behind by today’s economy.

The best opportunity for working women and men to get ahead economically is by coming together with their co-workers to bargain with their employer for a better life – through a union. In fact, government statistics show that working men and women who have a union today make 30 percent more than workers who do not have a union, and they are far more likely to have health insurance and retirement plans. Read more...

The American economy created 111,000 new jobs in January, proof positive that the economy is continuing to grow and create new, better-paying jobs. I urge the House of Representatives to follow the Senate’s lead and pass a minimum wage bill that will relieve much of the tax and regulatory burden on small businesses, and allow them to remain the driving force behind economic growth.

We must be careful not to disrupt economic growth with a hike in the minimum wage that is not coupled with relief for the small businesses that must pay those higher wages. The Senate has delivered a true victory for minimum wage earners and middle class small business owners alike by overwhelmingly approving a fair and balanced minimum wage package. The House must now follow suit, and recognize that increasing the minimum wage without helping small businesses is not only unwise, it is not an option. Read more...

No matter how much time I spend outside of Washington with our members, I am struck by how practical and principled they are compared to the “thought leaders Read more...

It’s disgraceful that the Senate is still holding the minimum wage hostage to tax cuts for business. There is no reason for weighting down this much-needed – and otherwise straightforward - piece of legislation with yet another round of unwarranted tax breaks for business.

In the last 10 years, the Republican-led Congress provided corporations with a whopping $276 billion in tax cuts and provided small businesses with another $36 billion in dedicated tax breaks, while America’s lowest paid workers have gotten nothing.

Minimum wage workers in this country have waited far too long for a raise - - and it’s shameful that they must now wait even longer because of the Senate’s insistence on business tax giveaways. Even more shameful was the vote by 28 Republican Senators last week to effectively abolish the federal minimum wage. Read more...

I would like to commend the Senate for overwhelmingly approving a fair and balanced minimum wage increase that supports working families and small businesses. Final passage of this package is a clear victory for the middle class, and I urge the House of Representatives to follow the Senate’s lead.

Who is more middle class than America’s small businessmen and women? Passing the Senate’s bipartisan minimum wage and small business relief is good for low skilled workers and it is good for the middle class working families of America.

Some have made reference to the so-called ‘war on the middle class.’ Let’s get our facts straight: Mandating the minimum wage increase without proper relief to the working families who employ many of America’s workers would have been an assault on the middle class. Others like to talk about ‘two Americas.’ Our action today recognizes that there is one America. We are all in this together and we need not do great injury to one group of Americans just to aid another. Read more...

Despite the assertion of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps in an earlier post (Jan. 31), the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition advocates neither "open borders" nor "amnesty."  EWIC supports comprehensive immigration reform measures that:

- Address both future economic needs for future workers through the creation of a guest worker program and practically address the estimated 7-11 million undocumented workers already in the United States.
- Create an immigration system that functions efficiently for employers, workers, and government agencies.
- Create a program that allows hard working, tax paying undocumented workers to earn legal status.
- Ensure that U.S. workers are not displaced by foreign workers.
- Ensure that all workers enjoy the same labor law protections.
- Strengthen national security by providing for the screening of foreign workers and creating a disincentive for illegal immigration.
- Strengthen the rule of law by establishing clear, sensible immigration laws that are efficiently and vigorously enforced. Read more...

House Democrats attempted to use an Education and Labor Committee hearing yesterday to engage in bitter class warfare over the state of the U.S. economy.

They failed.

Democrats and their witnesses tried to paint a bleak picture of an America facing economic insecurity, shrinking job opportunities, declining upward mobility, and a growing inability to save and accumulate wealth. At the same time, they ignored these facts: Read more...

The Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security will receive a one-sided testimony today from members of the Bush Administration who will support the President’s weak immigration policies, as well as lobbyists representing the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition, an organization in support of open borders and amnesty.

Today's Judiciary Subcommittee hearing calls for a roadmap to amnesty through the Department of Homeland Security’s “US-VISIT Read more...