Herb Kohl: “this is the second time the Senate will vote on the President's striker replacement Executive order and, I hope, the…”

“this is the second time the Senate will vote on the President's striker replacement Executive order and, I hope, the second time the Senate affirms the Executive order. Our Nation's labor laws grant workers the right to strike and ensure that they cannot be fired during the course of a strike. To tell a worker who may have given many years of dedicated and loyal service that he or she has not been fired but permanently replaced is no consolation to that worker or their family. In my many years as a businessman, I negotiated numerous labor contracts. I always understood that the workers were negotiating on behalf of themselves and their families. On some occasions, I stood firm. On other occasions, I gave way. On all occasions, I believe, both sides made concessions. We reached an agreement and went back to business. That was the process. Mr. President, not once during those strikes did it ever occur to me that those workers would lose their jobs for striking. Not once did it occur to me that permanently replacing them was an acceptable practice. And yet today, you can see advertisements for permanent replacement workers even before the expiration of a labor contract. The key to collective bargaining, Mr. President, is balance and good-faith negotiation. The President's Executive order does not deny that labor disputes are going to occur. But it does acknowledge that such disputes should be fairly negotiated.”