Madam Speaker, this week, opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act have tried to frame this debate as unions verse workers.  I don’t think it’s working, but what a miraculous bit of political gerrymandering it would be if it did.

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But here’s what is true:  Members of unions have salaries 30% higher than their nonunion counterparts, are almost twice as likely to have employer provided healthcare, and five times as likely to have a pension.

The facts show that there is no advocate for working people better than the unions.  However, for every four workers who try to organize and reap the benefits of union membership, one is subsequently fired.  That’s twenty five percent of hard-working Americans who take action in order to attain a higher quality of life, and lose their job as a result.  This is an injustice to working people, antithetical to the promise of this great nation, and by definition un-American.

Seventy years ago, President Roosevelt and this very institution recognized the ability to organize as a human right.  This bill restores and ensures that right— the right to negotiate for better wages, better benefits, better working conditions— to millions of our fellow Americans.

The reality of the situation makes easing the requirements of organization more than just a step in the right direction; it is our obligation as leaders and Representatives of the working families in our districts.  With this one piece of legislation, we will raise wages, increase accessibility to healthcare, and ease the burden on retired Americans. 

Even as their productivity has risen and CEO pay has skyrocketed, the American worker has seen a drop in wages over the last six years.  It’s time to end this disturbing trend and return to the American way of doing things. 

This bill isn’t employers vs. employees, and it’s certainly not unions verse workers, this is simply Americans for America.  Because when our working families thrive, all of us benefit.

Therefore, on behalf of not only the employees who are the backbone of our economy, but on behalf of all our citizens, I urge my colleagues to support the Employee Free Choice Act, and I yield back the remainder of my time.