We Stand With Ohio Workers

Floor Speech

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Sutton) for 5 minutes.

Ms. SUTTON. Mr. Speaker, today people from across Ohio are gathering at the Statehouse in Columbus. They are gathering to speak up for workers and the middle class in this country. Last Tuesday, I went to Columbus and joined our brothers and sisters in our fight to protect the right of public employees to have a voice at the negotiating table. And as we gathered to oppose Senate bill 5, that backward effort of Governor Kasich and his Republican friends in the State legislature to eliminate collective bargaining, I was struck by the weight of the moment and by the weight of this fight. But I was inspired, too--inspired to see thousands of people from across the State coming together to protest the radical measures that the Republicans were proposing.

Though we can't be there today physically, we are there with those who gather at the Statehouse, and we stand with them from our place here in our Nation's capital. Last week, we were there shoulder to shoulder, people in common purpose, standing up for working families, standing together in the fight for the promise of the middle class.

The unfair, backward-thinking attack on Ohio's firefighters, police, teachers, nurses, and other dedicated public employees must be stopped. And I'm proud to be standing with Ohioans that are fair-minded as we fight for progress, not for a return to old ways. Instead of pursuing this draconian measure attacking Ohio's working families, lawmakers at every level of government should be focused on the critical priority of getting people back to work instead of engaging in attacks on those who have chosen to teach our children, protect our communities, and keep us safe.

Everyone should be working to strengthen our economy and create jobs. That, in turn, would generate the revenue we need to fairly compensate our public employees with the wages and the benefits which they have been promised and they have earned. The focus of all officials, as I said, across all levels of government, should be on creating jobs, not taking more from our workers. It was not our workers who drove the economy off the cliff. It was not our workers in Ohio. It was not the workers in Wisconsin. But it seems that the Republicans just can't stop themselves. Similar efforts to disempower working families and the middle class are occurring right here in Washington.

It is not just collective bargaining for public employees that they're after. Two weeks ago, Republicans tried to pass a measure in Congress to prohibit the paying of prevailing wages and to stop local project labor agreements, which would put a hard hit on our trades people. They even tried to eliminate the National Labor Relations Board, the very board that exists as a referee to make sure that our workers get a fair shake.

Yet they have not offered any job creation bills. And at the same time they are not creating jobs, they are defunding programs that have real benefits: their refusal to expand the trade adjustment assistance that helped workers who were displaced because of the trade policies that they pursued; the refusal of some to extend unemployment benefits to those who are out of a job through no fault of their own. At the same time they are working to not create jobs, they are also giving no assistance to those who are left without a job. It's issues like these that make it so important that we keep our heads up in Ohio.

And to all of those who are out there in Ohio and across the country fighting this fight, it's an important fight, and what you do matters. It's important that we speak up and be heard so that the issues that matter to us so very deeply are well sounded. We have to stand together and work together and fight forward.

Using the deficit as an excuse, there are those who are trying to convince the American people that a more fair economy would result in a much less efficient economy. But fairness and efficiency are not mutually exclusive. Using the deficit as an excuse to give a disproportionate hit to workers or unions is not the way to go.

I would hope that the Republicans, both at the State level as well as here in Congress, would join with us to focus on what we really need to do, and that is to create jobs. And I would hope that they would stop the misguided attack on workers and the middle class.

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