This Labor Day weekend,
families are taking time out from their backyard barbecues and
softball games to talk about serious matters: how to pay for their
child's medical bills, whether their job will be outsourced, if
they'll be able to pay this winter's heating bill.
Many are asking the
question a constituent recently posed to me: ''How can they say the
economy is so good when so many of us are struggling to pay our
bills?''
New census data confirm
that while productivity is up, wages are down. Between 2004 and 2005,
the average full-time male worker lost $774 in wages, bringing his
earnings down below the 2000 level. Full-time women workers
experienced their third year of reduced earnings, down $427 from 2004
to 2005. In one year, 1.3 million more Americans lost health coverage.
A rising tide is clearly not lifting all boats. It is time to change
course and head in a new direction.
I believe there are
three steps to take to make sure that working families benefit from
America's economic recovery.
First, we should reward
companies that hire domestically and treat their employees fairly --
not those who outsource jobs and stash profits overseas. I have
introduced H.R. 5699, the Patriot Corporations of America Act, to
provide preferential federal contracting and tax treatment to
companies that hire American workers and treat them fairly.
Second, we should raise
the federal minimum wage, following the lead of Illinois and other
states. It is a national disgrace that a full-time minimum-wage worker
cannot earn enough to stay above the poverty line or rent a
one-bedroom apartment anywhere in the country.
Third, we must guarantee
workplace rights by passing the Employee Free Choice Act, and we must
prevent the National Labor Relations Board from taking away workers'
right to organize and join a union. Why is that important? Because
union workers earn more, are more likely to have health insurance and
pensions, have better job security and receive more vacation and paid
leave.
The NLRB is considering
a set of cases, the Kentucky River cases, that could affect 8 million
workers: nurses, electricians, cashiers, clerks and others. If it
decides to treat them as supervisors -- not because they can hire or
fire, promote or discipline other employees but because they provide
instructions -- those workers could lose the right to join a union and
the improved financial security that comes with that choice.
Consider a loading dock
employee who tells her co-worker where to place cartons, or a nurse
who tells an orderly how to handle a patient. Depending on how the
NLRB acts, those workers could be considered ''supervisors'' and lose
the right to join a union and bargain collectively for better wages
and benefits.
Labor Day is about
honoring the role of workers. The best way to do that is to ensure
that all workers in America share the benefits of an improved economy.
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