Employee Free Choice Act

EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE ACT

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Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of this rule and the underlying legislation.

As a longtime cosponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act, I applaud our Leadership for bringing this bill expeditiously to the floor. American workers from coast to coast are standing up to cheer because their voices no longer fall upon deaf ears in the House of Representatives.

Under this Democratically-controlled House, worker pleas for fairness in organizing are finally being answered.

Consider, over the last 60 years, there have been only 42 instances where union misconduct was found by the National Labor Relations Board. In direct contrast, over 30,000 workers received back pay from employers who illegally fired them for their union activities in 2005 alone.

In my district, I have walked the picket lines with literally hundreds of workers who were wrongfully fired or laid-off for trying to organize a union. Whether it has been at a body armor plant or hospitals and nursing homes as well, I have seen, firsthand, employer intimidation aimed at discouraging union involvement.

This legislation cracks down on intimidation and coercion. It also gives employees the choice--through a public or private ballot process--to decide whether or not they want to organize a union and experience all that one has to offer, including higher wages and better healthcare for its members. Whatever their decision, under this bill, the choice is theirs.

Madam Speaker, when I was a child, my parents took us out of Florida in search of higher wages. Like every other American family, they wanted a better life for them and for me.

When workers seek to organize and take advantage of their collective bargaining rights, they too are searching for an improved life for them and their families. They aren't trying to take advantage of the system or run the company which employs them out of business. All they want is fair pay and benefits for an honest day's work.

The Employee Free Choice Act preserves and enhances the American worker's right to organize. I stand by these efforts and this much needed legislation. I urge my colleagues to do the same.

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