Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act--Motion to Proceed--

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I rise early this evening to recognize D. Taylor, a fierce labor advocate, a key partner in our fight for workers in this country, a friend who retired from his role as President of UNITE HERE earlier this month. Everything D. has done--and I have watched him closely; I have worked closely with him. Everything D. has done over the course of his career comes back to the dignity of work, the idea that hard work should pay off for everyone, whether you punch a clock, whether you swipe a badge, whether you work in an office, whether you work for tips, whether you are raising children, or whether you are caring for an aging parent.

The dignity of work has guided D. Taylor through his whole career as he fought to unionize industries that have long been overlooked with workers who have long been underpaid and ignored.

For the past 12 years, D. served as President of UNITE HERE, a union that represents workers across the hospitality industry. Its members work in airports, in food service, in hotels. They make textiles; they serve on Amtrak trains; they cross the Nation.

It is not a coincidence we have seen momentum in the labor movement while D. has been at the helm of UNITE HERE. So often, where we have seen unprecedented union growth, D. and his members have been on the frontlines organizing, invigorating, calling for change. This generation--this youngest generation now--is quantifiably, certainly, the most pro-labor generation of our lifetimes.

Under D., UNITE HERE has become one of the fastest growing trade unions in the country. Despite a pandemic that devastated workers in hospitality, D. has actually expanded UNITE HERE. He focused on southern States and right-to-work States--much harder States to organize than the Presiding Officer's State of Maine or mine in Ohio-- not that it is easy in those States with Federal law but even harder in those southern States.

Workers, traditionally, haven't had a seat at the table. During his time as president, D. oversaw the union's organizing of 140,000 service and hospitality workers in over 1,000 workplaces across the country. Because of D. and UNITE HERE, these workers now have a union card. That means higher pay; it means better benefits; it means safer workplaces; and it means something that many don't think about: It means more control over your schedule.

I remember being in Nevada at the Culinary Workers Union Local 226, which D. built into a powerhouse. That union is an inspiration for workers everywhere. They had a massive banner on the wall that said ``One job should be enough''; that workers should not have to have two and three jobs to support their families.

``One job should be enough.''

I remember--this wasn't directly about D., but I will never forget this discussion I had in Cincinnati. I was at an AFL-CIO dinner. There were a number of people--probably 300 people there. And there was one table where there were four or five middle-aged women. I sat down--they had an empty seat and said: Join us. And I sat down at the table and said: Tell me your story.

They said: We just organized custodial workers. We had our first contract--1,200 custodial workers negotiating with the downtown business owners in Cincinnati. They said: We signed our first contract.

I said: What does that mean to you?

A woman said: I am 51 years old. It is the first time I have a paid one-week vacation.

Those are the workers so often that D. Taylor organizes--workers who are generally low-paid, workers sometimes without healthcare, workers often without vacations, workers that have no say over their schedule. Those are the people that D. worked with. D. always said: One job should be enough. That is what he fought for.

He first got involved as a college student while working in a local restaurant. He joined the union. He eventually became the shop steward for that local. After graduation, he moved to Nevada to work on a UNITE HERE strike. He quietly moved up through the ranks, eventually leading the union in a 7-year--the famous 7-year Frontier Casino strike, one of the longest successful strikes in labor history. D. became a key player in negotiations with some of the largest casinos on the strip.

He became an institution at UNITE HERE. As a head of the Culinary Union, he built a coalition of service workers. He showed the country there is no reason a service job can't be a good job where you are respected, make good wages, and build a career.

As Gaming Division Director, he led casino workers across the country to victory, organizing new members and leading new strikes. He went on to be the general vice president of UNITE HERE before being elected as union president.

All along the way, he became known for that constant refrain: ``One job should be enough.'' Let me say that one more time: One job should be enough. For everybody in this institution, that is kind of the way it is. But for far too many low-paid workers, they have to work a second job or third job to pay the rent, to support their kids, to just get along every day.

He has fought to make that rally cry a reality by transforming standards for work in hospitality and services. It has meant securing higher pay. It has meant fighting for contracts with affordable, quality healthcare that workers have access to and can navigate their way through. It has meant standing up to layoffs. It has meant helping tens of thousands of workers get their jobs. Because of D., workers across the country are in better jobs with better pay and better benefits.

I have had the privilege of working with D. on many issues, including fighting for the Senate's dining workers. Believe it or not, the people who served us in this institution were making very suboptimal wages-- some, barely enough. One man I met when I was involved in this actually lived and worked here all day and lived and worked at a homeless shelter all night. Imagine that.

One job should be enough.

They served the Senate during a pandemic, during a violent insurrection. Every day, they fed Senators and staff and tourists from Ohio and Maine and all over the country. Yet fewer than one in five of them, at that time, could afford the health insurance plan that was offered to them.

Together, we fought to make sure the new contract honors the dignity of work with the pay and the benefits and the respect that Senate dining workers deserve and have earned--that all workers deserve and have earned. It wouldn't have happened without D., without UNITE HERE, without the Senate dining workers who used their voices and their collective power to secure a better contract. That is just one example.

In every role, at every opportunity, D. has fought to turn jobs that traditionally have come with low pay and minimal benefits into careers where people can build a life and see a future--simply the dignity of work, where their work has dignity. For that, we are grateful for D.'s tenacity, for his advocacy. And for his leadership, we are grateful.

In retirement, D., of course, will keep fighting for workers as chair of UNITE HERE Health, and he will support the union and gaming industry. He will never fully retire.

I look forward to working with his successor, Gwen Mills, the current secretary treasurer of UNITE HERE, the first-ever woman president in this union's history to be elected to an international union; the first-ever woman in this union's history to ever be elected international union president in a union that has a huge number of women, as you know.

If you love this country, you fight for the people who make it work. That is exactly what D. has done his whole life. It is what UNITE HERE has done. It is what I will continue to work with my colleagues to do in this body.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source