Economic Inequality
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. SOTO. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Khanna for all of the good work that he is doing. I know he is changing the world in California. There are going to be so many labor issues to come from that that I can't even dream of right now. But I rest assured knowing that someone of his savviness of knowing technology will help us make sure that we are protecting working families going into the future.
I also share his concern and believe that American Airlines should be paying living wages to the folks who are working for them and certainly stand with CWA on that issue.
Today, we are talking about Janus v. AFSCME. Mr. Janus is a man who wants to get something for nothing, a man who wants to get the benefit of collective bargaining without having to pay for it, and he is asking the Supreme Court to dismantle unions in the process of that, all because he doesn't agree with some political messaging of the union, in this case, AFSCME.
I would like to take a moment to take this logic to its end. Perhaps every shareholder should be able to object to Fortune 500 companies about political messaging they disagree with. Every single one of them: 1 share; 1 million shares. Perhaps every employee should have the right to object to their Fortune 500 company employers' political messaging if they disagree. But, of course, that is not what is happening because this is a concerted attack on America's unions, leaving corporate dark money to reign unchecked in our political process. Ultimately, it is an attack on the middle class.
Imagine our country without a strong middle class. Imagine a country with just the haves and the have-nots. There are plenty across this globe. There are plenty that aren't making a big difference in this world because when you have the rich control all capital, all political power, that is when they control us, and we don't have the innovation. We don't have the incentive. We don't have the progress that is so critical to capitalism, which I think is being missed on this. If you don't have a fair market, you can't have successful capitalism, and part of a fair market includes having a strong voice for our middle class, for our working folks, through our unions.
It is no surprise that a rise to greatness in this country was tied to the rise of the middle class. Think about it: GIs returning home from World War II, fanning out to the suburbs. Even before that, around World War I and before that, when you had all of these major milestones that we talked about--a 40-day workweek, overtime, child labor laws, OSHA, so many things that happened, antitrust, that created the modern economy--and we surged and prosperity reigned through most corners of the United States.
So I want to just take a moment--and I appreciate Mr. Khanna for bringing this forward--to urge the Supreme Court to do the right thing: to protect the right to collectively bargain from being dragged down by nonunion free riders just because they disagree with the political message.
Or, in the alternative, allow every employee, every shareholder, to object to corporate political speech they disagree with. Let's keep it fair on all sides then. If I have one share and I am a part-time employee of a major Fortune 500 company and I disagree, I should be able to object, just like this man wants to be able to object. Corporations aren't people; people are people.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Khanna) for the opportunity to be able to stand with him on behalf of America's working families.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source