DeLauro Speaks in Support Legislation Protecting Workers’ Rights

WASHINGTON, D.C. — (February 6, 2020) Today, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) spoke on the Floor of the House of Representatives in support of the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, legislation that would extend protection to union workers by strengthening their collective bargaining rights and penalizing corporations that violate workers' rights. A full video of her speech can be found here, and below are her remarks as delivered:

I rise to speak in support for the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, or the PRO Act.

I am the daughter of a garment worker, so the fight for workers' rights has always had a special place in my heart. My mother toiled every day in the sweatshops in New Haven, Connecticut; sewing shirt collars and dresses. And she was piece work which that meant she got pennies on the dollar. As Chair of the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee, I work everyday to ensure that her early struggles were not in vain.

I am proud to be an original cosponsor of the PRO Act, introduced by the Chair of the Committee, Congressman Bobby Scott. It strengthens the rights of working people to come together in unions to secure better wages, better working conditions.

The single biggest economic challenge of our times is that people's pay doesn't keep up with their rising costs of healthcare, education, and childcare. And from 1980 to 2017, average incomes for the bottom 90 percent of households stagnated to a 1.1 percent increase, while skyrocketing more than 180 percent for the wealthiest one percent in this country. It is no coincidence that at the same time, union membership fell for a record low of 10 percent. Economists at Princeton found that the alarming rise of income inequality since the 1970s can be at least partially attributed to the decline in union membership.

The PRO Act is about leveling the playing field for working people. It penalizes predatory corporations that violate workers' rights, streamlines procedures at the National Labor Relation Board to more effectively deal with violations. It protects workers from being misclassified as independent contractors. It helps working people secure a winning agreement as part of a union, it protects union elections against interreference, it empowers unions and employers to negotiate agreements that collect fair-share fees, and establishes a mediations and arbitration process. It helps to reach a first contract.

As Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has said and I quote, "Inequality is not inevitable. It is about the public policy choices we make not globalization, not technology." We have the opportunity today to choose a public policy that in fact will defend and protect working people in this country. Pass the PRO Act.

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