Providing for Consideration of H.R. 2587, Protecting Jobs from Government Interferance Act

Floor Speech

I rise in strong support of America's job creators, the rule, and H.R. 2587, Protecting Jobs from Government Interference Act.

What this bill does is it simply amends the NLRA, which was passed in 1935, and prohibits the National Labor Relations Board from ordering employees to relocate, shut down, or transfer employment under any circumstances. In other words, it allows managers to make business decisions that are in the best interest of their company and their employees.

Let's just give a CliffsNotes version of this.

Boeing is a great American company. I visited that company in Washington State. I've also seen the Boeing plant in Charleston, South Carolina. What happened was they moved a second line of business there. The Machinists Union disagreed with that. Lodge 751 lodged a complaint.

What the NLRB is supposed to be is an impartial referee. It's like a basketball game. When you go into a gym, you expect the referees to be fair to both sides. And to my friend on the other side, the NLRB oversees elections, but you have a right as an employee to vote for or against a union. You have both rights.

What this is doing is: What about the people who work in South Carolina? The company has invested over a billion dollars to create good-paying American jobs. One week ago today, the President of the United States stood right where you are and made a very eloquent speech about job creation. But I guess it doesn't matter in South Carolina where those 1,000 jobs--1,100 people are working. It's not a very complicated issue. A company should be allowed to move within the borders of this country.

I was raised in a union household. My father belonged to the union. He lost his job several decades ago to a foreign country, so I know what that's like. Certainly I am very pleased that the people in Washington State have added jobs, not lost jobs out there.

So I believe that this absolutely is an egregious overreach of the NLRB, and I encourage my colleagues to vote for this rule and vote for this very important piece of legislation.

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