Cord Byrd: “Mr. President, although this amendment only directly affects workers involved in Government contracts, there is a deeper…”

“Mr. President, although this amendment only directly affects workers involved in Government contracts, there is a deeper principle--a principle which goes to the rights of other workers to act in concert-- in other words, to strike--to bring about improved working conditions, better wages, safety and health protection, and so on. It is a principle for which many men have given their lives, and, as one who grew up in the southern coal mining counties of West Virginia, I rise today in opposition to this amendment. I was raised by a coal miner; I married a coal miner's daughter; my days as a boy and as a young man were spent in coal mining surroundings, and as a young man I worked in the coal mining company stores in Raleigh County and Fayette County, West Virginia. I lived at various times in Mercer and McDowell and Raleigh and Fayette Counties-- all of which were big coal producers--and my uncle, who raised me, worked in the mines of Mercer, McDowell and Raleigh counties.”