Janice Schakowsky: “I want to definitely thank my colleague from Michigan and also my colleague from Massachusetts for being here to support…”

“I want to definitely thank my colleague from Michigan and also my colleague from Massachusetts for being here to support workers. I believe that it is the labor movement that brought us the middle class. The height was really after World War II, where we saw that wages were going up for everyone--the wealthiest, the middle class, poor people could get jobs that would get them out of poverty--and the labor movement, the right of workers to organize, made the difference, to fight together, work together for better wages and working conditions. So, today, I rise in enthusiastic support before the House of Representatives for H.R. 2474, the Protect the Right to Organize Act, for a vote that is going to take place tomorrow in the House of Representatives. The right to form a union, which has been eroded over the last several decades, and the right to take collective action in the workplace and the right to exercise one's First Amendment rights in the form of secondary boycotts are fundamental, and it is past time that we as Americans promote their values. For too long, employers have been able to violate the National Labor Relations Act with impunity, routinely denying workers their basic right to join with coworkers for fairness on the job. As a result, the collective strength of workers to negotiate for better pay and for better benefits has eroded, and income inequality in the United States of America has reached levels that predate the Great Depression.…”