Fighting for Working Families

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Protecting Workers’ Rights to Organize

Proud Original Co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act of 2009

• As the son of a lifelong union member, Congressman Murphy has been a tireless advocate for hardworking Pennsylvania families. He believes that this bill is necessary to ensure workers’ rights to bargain for better wages and benefits, giving them the opportunity to enter the middle class.
  
  
• This bill would ensure workers have a clear path to join unions. It requires employers to recognize a union if a majority of workers supports its creation, provides for stiffer penalties for employers who violate labor laws, and helps employees negotiate a contract in a reasonable period of time.

Proud Co-sponsor of the Re-Empowerment of Skilled and Professional Employees and Construction Tradesworkers (RESPECT) Act

• The RESPECT Act would protect the right of employees to participate in union activity. Under the Bush administration, the NLRB changed and muddled the definition of who is considered a “supervisor” and thus who can legally be fired for union activity.
  
• This bill would restore the original intent of Congress that employees should not be put in that category if they have only minor supervisory duties.

Fighting for Stronger Labor Standards in Government Contracting

Directed GAO to conduct an investigation into effects of contracting with unscrupulous companies

• Congressman Murphy instructed the GAO, the Congressional investigative agency, to examine the cost that the government – and thus taxpayers – incur when the government awards contracts to low-road companies with low pay, meager benefits, and a history of labor violations. Evidence at the state-level has demonstrated that contracting with such firms hurts taxpayers who first pay for the cost of the contract and also pay for the cost of federal benefits (ie. SCHIP, Medicaid, and food stamps) for which workers qualify as a result of their poor compensation.
  
  
• The GAO report will help quantify the taxpayer loss at a federal level, providing those who fight for working families additional ammunition in the fight to strengthen labor standards in the federal procurement process.

Succeeded in Protecting Responsible Contractor Ordinances

Worked with federal housing agency to reverse anti-labor policy

• Congressman Murphy believes local governments should be able to ensure that contractors they work with are responsible and competent by requiring that the prospective contractor participate in certified apprenticeship programs. However, HUD had threatened the loss of grant money to those who enacted such requirements.
  
  
• After months of negotiation, Congressman Murphy succeeded in getting HUD to reverse its previous policy and protect the right of local governments to enact these contractor requirements.

Standing Up for Fair Trade

Supporter of Buy American Policies

• Congressman Murphy believes that federally-funded infrastructure projects should utilize domestic materials, ensuring that the U.S. economy incurs the benefits of these investments.
  
  
• These “Buy American” provisions are vital to ensuring that our steel and iron manufacturing sector receive the jump-start necessary to generate new, high-paying jobs here at home.

Opposed the Columbia and Peru Free Trade Agreements

• Free trade is not free if it costs American workers their jobs. Congressman Murphy opposes and will continue to oppose trade deals that harm American working men and women.

Ensuring Worker Safety

Proud Cosponsor of H.R. 2067, the Protect America’s Workers Act

• Congressman Murphy believes that we need to improve workplace safety and protect our employees from becoming injured, sick, or even getting killed on the job.
  
  
• This bill expands OSHA protections to state, county, and municipal employees as well as airline and railroad workers who were not previously covered. It also provides for stiffer penalties when a worker is killed or seriously injured because of a willful violation of the law and improves protections for whistleblower who put their job security at risk by alerting authorities to unsafe or illegal working conditions.

Securing Full Retirement Benefits for State and Local Government Employees

Proud Co-sponsor of H.R. 235, the Social Security Fairness Act

• Congressman Murphy believes that workers who dedicated their lives to public service should not lose the retirement benefits that they or their spouses earned throughout their careers.
  
  
• This bill would repeal the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), both of which unfairly reduce or eliminate benefits that public employees or their surviving spouses have earned and were expecting to receive in retirement.

Fighting for Paycheck Fairness

Proud Co-sponsor of H.R. 11, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

• As the first bill that President Obama signed into law, this legislation reversed the Supreme Court decision that held that victims of pay discrimination had 180 days from their first discriminatory paycheck to file suit, making it exceedingly difficult for victims to seek redress in court.
  
  
• In restoring the longstanding interpretation of civil rights law prior to the court’s decision, workers are now allowed to file these claims within 180 days of each discriminatory paycheck.
  
  
• The law recognizes the reality of the workplace, where few employees know within six months of beginning work what they earn relative to their coworkers.

Proud Co-Sponsor of H.R. 12, the Paycheck Fairness Act

• This bill discourages pay discrimination by prohibiting retaliation against employees for discussing their salary and allowing victims to seek compensatory and punitive damages.

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