Employee Free Choice Act

Floor Speech

EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE ACT -- (Senate - June 22, 2007)

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, we are going to have a bill come up next week, a critically important bill known as the Employee Free Choice Act. I confess I come into this debate with strong feelings. I am a product of a family where my mother and father, my two brothers, and I were all members of labor unions. This was during a period where the labor movement created the middle class in America. It was World War II's aftermath. All of the returning veterans had an appetite to build homes, start families, open schools, and create the kind of middle-income working families who are the bedrock of America's democracy. The organization that helped these Americans move
forward was the labor movement. Organized labor went into plants and factories and offices across America and said: Workers, if you stand together, if you bargain together, great things can happen.

They did. We created health insurance as we know it today, pension plans that have provided the kind of security people dream of in retirement, good-paying jobs in safe workplaces. The American dream was realized. People bought the second car, put the kids through college, had enough time for a vacation, and enjoyed the good life in America.

It is no coincidence that as the strength of America's labor movement has declined. So, too, have the wages of working families. Not that those working families aren't doing a good job; they are. They are producing more goods and services than ever. They are more productive than ever, but they are not being paid for their hard work. They are not receiving a decent, livable wage so they can work one job and still have time with their family. They are not receiving the kind of health insurance protection they once received and fewer and fewer are receiving.

Taking a look at the numbers, in Illinois the median hourly wage fell in 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006 by 4.4 percent. Think about that. The median wage of people getting up and going to work every day is not keeping up with inflation; it is falling behind. Health care benefits in Illinois, the share of the population under the age of 65 with employer-provided health insurance fell from 71.9 percent in 1999 to 68.2 percent in 2004. Fewer people had health insurance through their employers over a 5-year period. That is the wrong direction. Pensions are the same. In my State, 52.6 percent of the people had employer-provided pensions in the years 1998 to 2000. By 2003 to 2005, the share had dropped to under 50 percent.

I honestly believe if workers can organize, if they can bargain, we could have profitable corporations with quality goods and services, good employee morale, and employees treated decently. That can happen.

The Employer Free Choice Act says that we want to give employees who want to organize a fighting chance. Some will say during the debate: If a majority of the workers in the workplace sign a card and say, I want to be part of a union, the process moves forward. Currently, if 30 percent of the workers sign a card, they move toward an election. Do you know how long it takes to have this election? Do you know how long it takes for the employees to finally get their chance to vote today as to whether they want a union? The Chicago Tribune pointed out in March of this year that the average National Labor Relations Board disputed election--and so many of them are disputed--takes 802 days to resolve, more than 2 years. Just think for a moment: if we said that the interminable campaigns we now have for public office would double in length--instead of a year from announcing your candidacy to a vote, we will make it over 2 years--is it possible voters would lose interest in that period of time? Is it possible people could work on their minds about prejudices against a candidate or for a candidate during that time? Of course it is. We need to make this a reasonable period and a reasonable process that comes to the ultimate question: Do a majority of the workers at this location want to organize collectively to try to represent their best interests and the interests of their family? I believe that is only fair.

Tuesday morning, we will have a vote. I hope my colleagues on both sides will take a close look at the legislation. If we give more opportunities for workers to express their heartfelt intentions about creating a union and they do, what is going to happen in America is as positive as what happened after World War II. We are going to see more workers in safer workplaces with decent living wages, good health insurance, and good pension benefits, and the corporations will still make a profit. Instead of giving some CEO $600 million for very little performance, they may have to make do with $300 million. I know it is going to be tough, but I think they can get by and then take that $300 million and give it to the workers so they have a chance to enjoy a good life without indebtedness and without the worries that come with the current situation.

I hope my colleagues will join me on Tuesday in supporting this effort. I hope in joining me, we will see a change in the law and, with this change, we will see a dramatic improvement in the economic fate of American families.

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