Issue Position: Employee Free Choice Act

Issue Position

I believe the working people of this great country have not only the right but an obligation to stand up to industry, to insure a safe and healthy work place and that the Americans who they employee are treated and compensated in a fair manner.

In 1970, I took my first professional pilot job as a co-pilot for Houston Metro Airlines. There were twelve pilots in this the first year of Metro's existence. As the years went on, the pilot force climbed to over one hundred. Due to issues relating to safety and compensation, we tried to affiliate ourselves with the Air Line Pilots Association but were told we were too small of a group. At that point, we started looking for help from other labor organizations and finally ended up with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Following a brief negotiation period, I was a Teamster.

As a United States Congressman for the Texas 36th District, I will go to Washington in support of the "Employee Free Choice Act". In 2007, the then Senator Obama stated, "I support this bill because in order to restore a sense of shared prosperity and security, we need to help working Americans exercise their right to organize under a fair and free process and bargain for their fair share of the wealth our country creates. The current process for organizing a workplace denies too many workers the ability to do so. The Employee Free Choice Act offers to make binding an alternative process under which a majority of employees can sign up to join a union. Currently, employers can choose to accept--but are not bound by law to accept--the signed decision of a majority of workers. That choice should be left up to workers and workers alone."

I will stand with the President to push for strong national labor regulations. As a Congressman for the 99%, I pledge to represent the working class of this country, not the money that has corrupted its government. We need a strong government that works for the people not the privileged few.

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