Issue Position: Supporting American Workers

Issue Position

Wall Street continues to make billions in profit and enjoy countless corporate tax breaks while wages remain stagnant, and executive bonuses continue to grow while the average worker is seeing their benefits cut. As State Treasurer of Illinois, Alexi has fought for workers' rights. When Wells Fargo threatened to liquidate good-paying American jobs at Hartmarx, a 120-year-old men's clothier in Des Plaines, Alexi took action. He made it clear that if Wells Fargo received $25 billion in bailout money from federal taxpayers, then it had a responsibility to invest in American jobs and American workers, not destroy American companies. Because Alexi and others stood up to Wells Fargo, the bank relented and hundreds of Illinois jobs were saved.

In the U.S. Senate, Alexi will continue to be a strong voice for workers' rights. He will fight to ensure that every worker has the right to unionize and that the Wall Street excesses that brought our nation to the brink of economic disaster are never repeated.

Creating the next generation of good-paying jobs

Alexi is the only candidate to outline a comprehensive economic plan to get our economy moving again and create good-paying jobs that can't be outsourced. Part of this plan includes targeted tax cuts for small businesses and middle-class workers, along with increased aid to states and localities to prevent layoffs. Alexi will also fight for increased investments in infrastructure to put more Americans back to work and invest in America's global competitiveness.

Alexi believes credit should be made available to small businesses, not just the large Wall Street firms that received billions in taxpayer bailout funds. He supports rerouting bailout money from big banks to smaller companies so they can access capital and start hiring again.

Congressman Kirk voted against President Obama's economic recovery plan after having voted for every Bush budget and tax cut for the wealthy that pushed our economy into ruin. He then voted repeatedly against legislation that would create jobs, stimulate the economy, give tax breaks to small businesses, extend unemployment benefits and invest in America's infrastructure. He explained his vote against unemployment benefits by saying that unemployment wasn't a "big issue" because "I have a very high-income district." [Roll Call, 6/16/08; HR 5749, Vote 410, 6/12/08; HR1265, Vote 408, 6/12/08; HR1265, Vote 407, 6/12/08; HR5749, Vote 403, 6/11/08; HR3030, Vote 18, 2/4/04; HR 7710, Vote 660, 9/26/08; HR3221, Vote 302, 5/08/08; Vote 519, 7/23/08; HR1, Vote 70, 3/31/09; HR2847, Vote 90, 3/4/10; HR 4213, Vote 943, 12/9/09; HR 4213, Vote 324, 5/28/10]

Ensuring that every worker has the opportunity to join a union

Alexi supports the Employee Free Choice Act as a way to level the playing field for American workers and give them a chance to collectively bargain with management for decent wages and benefits. Employers now have the ability to delay the process of forming a union, and they often use intimidation or harassment to dissuade workers from joining. EFCA would add meaningful penalties for employers who violate the law and make important reforms to the collective bargaining process. Alexi will fight to restore workers' freedom to join a union.

Congressman Kirk voted against the Employee Free Choice Act and has made its demise a central part of his economic plan. He also introduced legislation that would declare majority sign-up an unfair labor practice. [HR 800, Vote 118, 3/1/07; HR 5109, introduced 4/22/10]

Reforming the health insurance industry

Alexi strongly supported the landmark legislation that will ensure that insurance companies can no longer use caps or pre-existing conditions to deny coverage to those who pay their premiums, gouge consumers, or ration care to those who offer the most profit. Small businesses will earn tax credits to provide health insurance for their employees, prescription drugs will be more affordable for seniors, and the federal deficit will be reduced by more than a trillion dollars over the next two decades.

There are several provisions of the legislation that Alexi believes could have been stronger. He advocated for a non-profit option to bring down costs through increased competition, opposed the anti-choice language included in the final bill, and pushed for the consumer protection provisions to become effective immediately.

Health care costs have doubled while Mark Kirk has been in Congress, but he's continued to side with the health insurance industry over patients. Kirk voted against the landmark health care legislation and said that as senator he "would lead the effort" to repeal the health care bill. [HR 3962, Vote 887, 11/7/09; HR4872, Vote 167, 3/21/10; Vote 194, 3/25/10; Chicago Tribune, 3/18/10]

Protecting worker health and safety

While today's workplaces are significantly safer than they were just a few decades ago, many employees are killed or injured at work each year and hundreds of thousands more are still stricken with occupational disease. Alexi supports providing adequate funding for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and extending coverage to the millions of state and local employees currently excluded from the OSHA Act. He also outlined a detailed plan to ensure tragedies like the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion and the West Virginia mine explosion never happen again.

Congressman Kirk voted against the 2010 Department of Labor budget which included a much needed increase in funding for OSHA, and voted against the S-MINER Act in 2008, which strengthened mandatory safety standards for mine operators, increased penalties for safety violations and improved emergency response. [HR 3288, Vote 637, 7/23/09; HR2768, Vote 10, 1/16/08]

Promoting fair trade

Alexi believes that any trade agreement must include stringent labor and environmental safeguards to ensure that all nations are competing on a level playing field. Americans will never be able to compete against foreign companies that pay workers a few dollars for a day's work and dump toxic waste into local rivers. Increased trade should promote best practices, not a race to the bottom.

Congressman Kirk has said that he is an "ardent free trader" and has supported every free trade bill to come before the House. [CQ Weekly, 7/20/01]

Kirk often seems more interested in protecting China than standing up for the working constituents he represents. He voted against legislation to crack down on China's unfair trade practices and currency manipulation, while voting to support the tax loopholes that reward American companies that create jobs overseas. And for the American workers who lose those jobs to China, Kirk has voted against retraining assistant to those who fall victim to outsourcing. [HR2871, Vote 120, 5/1/02; HR3529, Vote 509, 12/19/01; HR4931 Vote 247, 6/21/02; HR27, Vote 47, 3/2/05]

Reining in Wall Street excesses

Alexi supports a comprehensive Wall Street reform bill that addresses the threat of "too big to fail" institutions rather than waiting for the next crisis to strike, regulates the non-bank mortgage lending industry, opens up the secretive derivatives market, and creates an independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency that protects consumers from home loans, credit card fees, payday loans and other forms of consumer finance that hide costs and push more Americans into an unending cycle of debt.

Congressman Kirk voted against Wall Street reform and refuses to close the corporate tax loopholes that reward companies for shipping jobs overseas. It's no wonder -- he has taken millions in contributions from Wall Street firms during his decade in Congress and has shown that he is willing to protect corporate profits over consumer rights. [HR 4173,Vote 968, 12/11/09; HR 3529, Vote 258, 6/17/04]

Ensuring pay equality

Despite decades of progress, women working full time make only 78 cents for every one dollar earned by men for the same job, while working mothers earn just 69 cents to that dollar. Alexi advocated for passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which further protects women's rights to take action against unfair pay practices. In the Senate, he will work to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would empower women to negotiate for equal pay, create incentives for employers to follow the Equal Pay Act and protect workers from retaliation if they disclose or question their pay.

Congressman Kirk voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to prevent wage discrimination and voted against eliminating caps on compensatory and punitive damages for successful wage discrimination suits [S 181, Vote 37, 1/27/09; HR 12, Vote 8, 1/09/09].

Protecting teachers in the grip of the recession

In the midst of the greatest economic recession since the Great Depression, Alexi believes that our education system must be protected from massive layoffs and budget cuts. That's why he strongly supports Senator Harkin's bill to effectively extend the education funding provisions in last year's Recovery Act. This legislation would go a long way to help avert the devastating budget cuts facing local school districts throughout Illinois.

Congressman Kirk has yet to embrace the Harkin bill. His lack of action will result in 300,000 teachers losing their jobs, leaving countless students in overcrowded classrooms.

Balancing work and family

Working families too often face a difficult choice between investing in their career or their children. Alexi believes that the right federal polices can help families balance these competing demands and do the most important job that there is in any society: to raise and nurture the next generation. Alexi has proposed expanding paid family medical leave to all firms with 20 employees or more, expanding leave to domestic partners, and guaranteeing four weeks of paid leave for all federal workers as first steps toward universal paid leave so that families must no longer choose between a child and a paycheck.

Congressman Kirk opposed legislation to ensure that federal employees would be paid for four of the twelve weeks of parental leave, as outlined in the Family and Medical Leave Act. He also refused to support bills that would expand the Leave Act and include domestic partners under its rules. [HRes1277, Vote 423, 6/19/08]

Supporting a strong minimum wage

Congressman Kirk opposed raising the minimum wage at least 11 times, but voted to raise his congressional pay at least six times. [HR5647, 6/13/06; HR5672, 6/20/06; HR5672, Vote 319, 6/27/06; HR4411, Vote 360, 7/11/06; HR2990, Vote 364, 7/12/06; HR2389, Vote 382, 7/19/06; HR1591, Vote 186, 3/23/07; HR1591, Vote 265, 4/25/07; HR1591, Vote 276, 5/2/07; HR2206, Vote 333, 5/10/07; HRes865, Vote 261, 6/13/06; HR342, Vote 327, 6/28/05; HRes 770, Vote 451, 9/14/04; HRes351, Vote 463, 9/4/03; HRes488, Vote 322, 7/18/02; HRes206, Vote 267, 7/25/01]
Ensuring retirement security

Alexi is deeply committed to the long term strength and stability of Medicare and Social Security. He believes workers deserve a basic level of security after a lifetime of work, and will work to strengthen Social Security, fight dangerous privatization schemes, and protect workers pension and retirement systems.

Congressman Kirk voted for every Bush budget and tax package that raided the Social Security Trust Fund, and even considered supporting Bush's privatization plan. He has taken tens of thousands in pharmaceutical money while voting against allowing Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices for seniors and allowing safe drug re-importation. The result is higher drug costs for seniors and fatter profits for the pharmaceutical industry. [HCR95, Vote 141, 4/11/03, SCR95, Vote 198, 5/19/04; HCR95, Vote 88, 3/17/05; Vote 149, 4/28/05; HR1836, Vote 149, 5/26/01; HR2, Vote 182, 5/9/03; Vote 225, 5/23/03; Chicago Daily Herald, 2/4/05; HR1, Vote 669, 11/22/03; HR2427, Vote 445, 7/25/03]

Reforming our immigration system

Our immigration system is broken. The number of undocumented workers continues to grow by about 500,000 per year, the system that oversees the immigration process is weighed down by bureaucracy and lack of funding, and businesses using illegal hiring practices are not being held accountable. Alexi's parents left Greece because they believed in the promise of America, but now that promise is slipping away from immigrant families. In the U.S. Senate, he will fight for common sense and comprehensive immigration reform that secures our borders, protects the rights of all workers and modernizes our legal immigration programs.

Congressman Kirk has continually put politics over solutions, voting in favor of a bill to build a 700-mile fence along the US-Mexico border and arguing that distributing free contraceptives in Mexico would help to ease the flow of illegal immigrants into the U.S. On the important question of whether he would support the comprehensive immigration reform package currently in the House, Congressman Kirk has been silent. [HR6061, Vote 446, 9/14/06; Reuters, 6/23/07]

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