Workforce Democracy and Fairness Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. KUCINICH. The right to organize is a fundamental right in a democratic society. In fact, workers' rights are human rights. This bill seeks to frustrate workers' rights to an election through attacking the National Labor Relations Board.

Today workers have to wait an average of 101 days to cast a ballot in an election, 101 days to wait for union representation. How long should workers have to wait to be able to assert their fundamental rights in a democratic society if we really believe in democracy?

Some of us believe that when a majority of workers want to be able to have a union, they should be able to do so forthwith.

We believe in government of the people. Why then would corporations want to block or frustrate the right of workers to be able to organize? I think it's pretty obvious. When workers are organized, they have the ability to participate in being able to say what their wages are worth. So this is about wages. It's about benefits. It's about workplace safety, about working conditions.

Workers rights are human rights. And this assault on the NLRB actually ends up being translated into a fundamental assault on our democracy. If we believe in a democracy, then we believe in a right to organize, a right to collective bargaining, a right to strike, a right to decent wages and benefits, a right to a secure retirement, a right for workers to participate in a political process.

This is America. Let's lift up the standard of workers--not attack it by making the day of their election and claiming a union farther and farther away almost to the point of nullification. Stand up for the American workers. Defeat this bill.

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