Lateefah Simon: “let me say in response to my colleague from Kansas, that we are not passing the law on striker replacement. This is…”

“let me say in response to my colleague from Kansas, that we are not passing the law on striker replacement. This is simply a sense of the Senate stating they ought to sit down and work these things out. We do have traditions of not hiring permanent replacements for strikers. And as far as interfering in a labor- management situation, we have passed a lot of resolutions on these, including specific legislation. This is not legislation. We have, on at least three occasions that I know of, passed legislation dictating what is going to happen in railroad strikes, since I have been in the Senate. And since my colleague from Kansas has been here longer, she has probably voted for more than three of these. This is only a sense-of-the-Senate resolution urging the two parties to sit down and work things out. We do not take sides. We do not say one side is right and one side is wrong. We do say that firing these thousands of workers who are on strike is not the direction we think they should go. I have participated in the striker replacement legislation, and I think everyone here on the floor said we do not think this is the way people should go, even though that ultimate right should be there for employers.”