Collective Bargaining Rallies

Floor Speech

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about the rallies that have occurred all over this country today, and to add my voice to theirs. Today, Americans in all 50 States are gathering at hundreds of rallies and events to stand together in unity in defense of the collective bargaining rights of public employees--rights I believe are now under attack in Wisconsin, Ohio, and in other States across this country.

That those demonstrations have been held today is no mere coincidence, for on this very day, 43 years ago, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King was killed in Memphis, TN, while standing up for the rights of 1,300 public sanitation workers.

Working men and women gathered early today in Wilmington to declare ``We Are One,'' and within the hour of this speech, thousands more will gather in Madison, WI, to protest what in my view is the scandalous move of Governor Walker to strip Wisconsin's longstanding collective bargaining rights from public-sector employees.

Before coming to this body, I served as the county executive of New Castle County, DE, for 6 years. And before becoming Governor of Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker was also the county executive of Milwaukee County for 8 years. I understand the difficult choices executives face when they must adopt a balanced budget, even in the toughest of economic and fiscal times, for as county executive I too faced extremely difficult budget challenges, as did the Presiding Officer as the Governor of West Virginia.

But I rise today because I know from my experience in cutting spending and in balancing budgets that it can be done without stripping American workers of their fundamental rights to organize and to collectively bargain. I know it because I have done it through collective bargaining and without resorting to blaming and draconian anti-union legislation.

New Castle County, DE, is a mid-sized county government serving just over 1/2 million people and has a budget of about $230 million. As the county executive, I confronted a real and growing budget problem. Our housing boom

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had masked deepening spending deficits that were unsustainable even before the economic collapse in 2008. As our national and local economies tumbled, our government's revenue did as well. I had already spent my first few years as county executive cutting spending each and every year in simple cuts, and we had only fundamental cuts in front of us.

We had reduced library hours, ended popular public events, and made many difficult choices that many local governments and many State governments face today. But that wasn't enough. As with many State and local governments, our budget was three-quarters personnel costs, and we could not allow those costs to continue to grow as health care and pension costs boomed. We needed to cut our people cost to get our budget under control.

Now, in the case of the county I formerly served, more than 80 percent of the county workforce is represented by organized labor, mostly AFSCME, but also the FOP and IBEW as well--and we needed all groups to come together and share the sacrifice that lay ahead.

It was just 2 years ago last week that I rose before our county council and delivered the hardest budget address I had ever given, one in which I laid out that we had two paths forward; one path would involve having all the suffering focused on about 150 to 200 public employees who would have to be laid off to balance our budget, and the other was sharing that sacrifice across our entire mostly unionized workforce.

Ultimately, after many meetings, many negotiations, some very hard talk and debate--and yes, even at one point some layoffs--every bargaining unit in our county government came to the table, worked collaboratively, and helped us reach the goal of cutting 5 percent of our total personnel costs not just 1 year but, as the recession continued and deepened, a second year as well. Many of these great and dedicated public employees saw health care costs shift and benefit packages change as well. But together they were willing to share that sacrifice, to work in the best interests of our county and the public, and to acknowledge that we are one.

In some ways, seeking a legislative solution such as has been done in Wisconsin, trying to simply strip away the right to be organized, to be at the bargaining table, might have seemed easier. Working together, as you know, as labor and management is not an easy path. No one wants to hear they have to do more with less, especially when it comes to their own paychecks. And public employees--in Delaware and all across this country--are, in my view, not just the backbone of our community but the backbone of our middle class. They are the policemen, the paramedics, the 911 call-takers, the emergency sewer repairmen, the librarians, the teachers, the health service workers, and the prison guards--the folks who keep our communities safe, healthy, and prepared for the future day in and day out.

In my view, where public employees come together to organize and seek collective representation on workplace issues, we ought to respect those choices. Collective bargaining serves as a critical check on our system and its long and storied history is an important part of American history and American values. It is that check that led to the end of child labor practices, that led to the 40-hour workweek and the weekend, to workplace safety rules, and ended legal sweatshops. It is a critical check against excesses and overreach by management and by the marketplace.

I stand here today to remind all of us that labor unions and the hundreds of thousands of public employees they represent in this country are not the enemy. We all know this country faces a significant, almost devastating national debt and annual budget deficit, and we are going to have to make shared sacrifices and tough choices to get through these next few years. But that does not require we strip the collective bargaining rights of the hundreds of thousands of public employees who serve us in the Federal Government, and the hundreds of thousands, even millions of public employees who serve our Nation at each and every level of government.

More often than not, these are the employees who do the difficult, the dirty and the dangerous jobs that keep us safe and make our communities strong. They simply, in my view, do not deserve to be demonized but, rather, to be listened to, respected, and partnered with, as together we seek solutions to the challenges facing our country now and in the future. In my view, passing new laws to eliminate their basic collective bargaining rights is wrong, and we can do it better by working together.

So today, I join with all those who are standing up for these fundamental rights of the American worker and join them in declaring ``We Are One.''

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Will the Senator withhold his suggestion.

Mr. COONS. Yes, Mr. President.

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