Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2021

Floor Speech

Date: March 9, 2021
Location: Washington, DC
Keyword Search: Covid

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 188, I call up the bill (H.R. 842) to amend the National Labor Relations Act, the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947, and the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration.

The Clerk read the title of the bill.

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. 842, the Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2021.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 842, the Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2021, or the PRO Act.

The American economy needs a strong middle class. Labor unions play an essential role in rebuilding our middle class and improving the lives of workers and their families. There is clear evidence that workers who organize a union have higher wages, better benefits, and safer workplaces.

Regrettably, union membership has dropped over the last 50 years from nearly one-third of all workers in the mid-20th century to just over 10 percent of workers today. The decline of unions and workers' bargaining power are major reasons why income inequality has soared and wages have stagnated for hardworking people.

But this decline in union membership is not a product of workers' choices. A recent survey by MIT found that nearly half of nonunion workers say that they would vote to join a union if given the opportunity.

The gap between worker preferences and union membership is the result of an 85-year-old labor law that lacks the teeth to enforce workers' rights when employers unlawfully retaliate against them for organizing. The National Labor Relations Act, the NLRA, is far too weak to defend workers against intensifying antiunion attacks from special interests.

That is why we must pass the PRO Act. The legislation strengthens workers' rights by making significant upgrades in the NLRA since it was enacted 85 years ago.

First, the PRO Act provides new tools to protect workers from antiunion intimidation and retaliation. It then introduces meaningful penalties for companies that violate workers' rights and closes loopholes they use to exploit workers.

Finally, the PRO Act strengthens safeguards to ensure that workers can hold free, fair, and safe union elections.

Mr. Speaker, it is time for Congress to stand up for workers and ensure that they can exercise their right to join together and negotiate for higher wages, better benefits, and a safe workplace. I urge my colleagues to support the legislation.

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, during the last Congress we held three hearings and considered 35 amendments.

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Washington (Ms. Jayapal) who is a distinguished member of the Committee on Education and Labor and is the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, could you advise how much time is available on each side?
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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman's amendment was made in order, so we will be considering it.

Adams), the chair of the Workforce Protections Subcommittee.
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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, reference was made to union officials at the UAW. They were caught and prosecuted under present law. The Trump administration that prosecuted them did not make any recommendations for changes in the law.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Nevada (Ms. Titus).

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Norcross), a distinguished member of the Committee on Education and Labor.

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green).

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, each of us can agree that hard work in this country should pay off. Yet, for far too long, we have allowed wealthy special interests to pad the profit margins by stripping workers of their rights.

Madam Speaker, we often voice our support for workers. Today, we have the opportunity to match our words with action by taking a historic step to ensure that they can stand together and negotiate for higher pay, better benefits, and safer workplaces.

I want to recognize all the workers and advocates, especially my colleagues on the Committee on Education and Labor, for their leadership on this legislation.

There is an extensive legislative history underpinning this bill, including three hearings and a markup in the 116th Congress. The views of the committee are outlined in the committee report from the last Congress.

Madam Speaker, I include in the Record a Statement of Administration Policy in support of the PRO Act and a statement by President Biden on the House taking up the PRO Act.

Statement of Administration Policy H.R. 842--Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2021--Rep. Scott, D- VA, and 212 cosponsors

The Administration strongly supports House passage of H.R. 842, the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act of 2021, which would strengthen the Federal laws that protect workers' right to organize a union and collectively bargain for better wages, benefits, and working conditions.

America was not built by Wall Street. It was built by the middle class, and unions built the middle class. Unions put power in the hands of workers. They give workers a stronger voice to increase wages, improve the quality of jobs and protect job security, protect against racial and all other forms of discrimination and sexual harassment, and protect workers' health, safety, and benefits in the workplace. Unions lift up workers, both union and non-union.

The policy of the United States Government, stated clearly in the National Labor Relations Act, is to encourage union organizing and collective bargaining. However, due to anti- union efforts by many employers for decades, lax enforcement of existing labor laws, and the failure to restore and strengthen labor laws to address the real-world of labor- management relations, only 6.3% percent of private-sector U.S. wage and salary workers were union members in 2020.

H.R. 842 would strengthen and protect workers' right to form a union by allowing the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to assess penalties on employers who violate workers' right to organize and ensuring that workers who suffer retaliation for exercising these rights receive immediate relief.

The PRO Act also defends workers' right to strike--a fundamental economic right--and to engage in boycotts and other acts of solidarity with workers at other companies without penalty. It clarifies that employers may not force employees to waive their rights to join together in collective or class action litigation. The bill also closes loopholes in Federal labor law by barring employers from misclassifying workers as independent contractors and preventing workers from being denied remedies due to their immigration status. It establishes an expansive joint employer standard, allowing workers to collectively bargain with all the companies that control the terms and conditions of their employment. The bill allows unions to collect fair- share fees to cover the cost of collective bargaining and administering a union contract for all workers who are protected by the contract's terms. H.R. 842 restores workers' access to fair union elections and ensures the results are respected.

The Administration strongly encourages the House to pass H.R. 842, and looks forward to working with the Congress to enact this critical legislation that safeguards workers' rights to organize and bargain collectively. The PRO Act will strengthen our democracy and advance dignity in the workplace. ____

Statement by President Joe Biden on the House Taking Up the PRO Act
(Statements and Releases, March 9, 2021)

I strongly encourage the House to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act of 2021, which would dramatically enhance the power of workers to organize and collectively bargain for better wages, benefits, and working conditions.

As America works to recover from the devastating challenges of deadly pandemic, an economic crisis, and reckoning on race that reveals deep disparities, we need to summon a new wave of worker power to create an economy that works for everyone. We owe it not only to those who have put in a lifetime of work, but to the next generation of workers who have only known an America of rising inequality and shrinking opportunity. All of us deserve to enjoy America's promise in full--and our nation's leaders have a responsibility to deliver it.

That starts with rebuilding unions. The middle class built this country, and unions built the middle class. Unions give workers a stronger voice to increase wages, improve the quality of jobs and protect job security, protect against racial and all other forms of discrimination and sexual harassment, and protect workers' health, safety, and benefits in the workplace. Unions lift up workers, both union and non- union. They are critical to strengthening our economic competitiveness.

But, after generations of sweat and sacrifice, fighting hard to earn the wages and benefits that built and sustained the American middle class, unions are under siege. Nearly 60 million Americans would join a union if they get a chance, but too many employers and states prevent them from doing so through anti-union attacks. They know that without unions, they can run the table on workers--union and non-union alike.

We should all remember that the National Labor Relations Act didn't just say that we shouldn't hamstring unions or merely tolerate them. It said that we should encourage unions. The PRO Act would take critical steps to help restore this intent.

I urge Congress to send the PRO Act to my desk so we can seize the opportunity to build a future that reflects working people's courage and ambition, and offers not only good jobs with a real choice to join a union--but the dignity, equity, shared prosperity and common purpose the hardworking people who built this country and make it run deserve.

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, pursuant to section 3 of House Resolution 188, I rise to offer amendments en bloc No 1.

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Murphy).

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his leadership.

Madam Speaker, I rise enthusiastically to support the PRO Act and its protection against executives and companies who violate workers' rights, its support for collective bargaining, and also its access to fair elections with unions.

I rise to support my amendment, number 9. The Jackson Lee amendment is direct. The amendment explicitly extends whistleblower protections to employees, both employers, and unions, under the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act. I am grateful to the unions and to the committee for working with this very important amendment.

It extends whistleblower protection to all employees of employers or of unions to encourage and empower them to come forward and make known that something is wrong.

Ms. Lawson, who was in a fight for $15, worked for a fast food industry. She was sexually harassed. She needs that kind of protection. So this amendment is very strong and adds to this very strong initiative.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of Jackson Lee Amendment No. 9 included in the Chairman's En Bloc Amendment to H.R. 842, the ``Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2021,'' or ``PRO Act,'' which protects the basic right to join a union by (1) empowering workers to exercise their right to organize; (2) holding employers accountable for violating workers' rights; and (3) securing free, fair, and safe union elections.

The LMRDA of 1959 protects union members through a ``bill of rights'' for union members, requires extensive reporting of union finances, and mandates transparency of arrangements between employers and anti-labor consultants.

I am pleased that the PRO Act includes reforms to the LMRDA that clarify that employers must disclose arrangements with consultants on indirectly persuading employees on how to exercise their labor rights.

Examples of indirect persuasion include planning employee meetings, training employer representatives, and identifying employees for disciplinary action or targeting.

The Jackson Lee Amendment No. 9 makes a simple common-sense improvement to the bill.

The identical version of this amendment was made in order by the Rules Committee in the 116th Congress and adopted by the House on February 6, 2020, by a roll call vote of 404-18.

Specifically, the amendment explicitly extends whistleblower protections to employees of both employers and unions under the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act.

This is a fair and balanced amendment.

Supreme Court decisions like Janus v. AFSCME, 585 U.S.__138 S. Ct. 2448, 201 L. Ed. 2d 924 (2018), and many others, have severely weakened the ability for unions to be able to organize and bargain collectively, or to discharge an essential mediating function upon which a vibrant democracy depends.

The PRO Act protects the workers who are trying to organize.

But the Jackson Lee Amendment No. 9 extends whistleblower protections to all employees, of employers or of unions, to encourage and empower them to come forward and make known something wrong or unlawful that they have learned or observed.

Let me give you an example.

Last year, I met Kimberly Lawson, who is part of the Fight for $15.

She also came to see me to advise me of the problems she has had with sexual harassment on her job in the fast-food industry.

She told me, on the record, that if we could pass the PRO Act, she would not be alone trying to raise our hourly wage or face sexual harassment without a union to help her.

Madam Speaker, this whistleblower protection is important because it gives workers like Ms. Lawson the ability to be able to report what is happening to them without losing or jeopardizing their jobs and the ability, like Ms. Lawson, to support her children on the income of a single mother.

Our economy needs a strong middle class, and unions are essential to rebuilding America's middle class and improving the lives of workers and their families.

When workers have the power to stand together and form a union, they have higher wages, better benefits, and safer working conditions.

Protecting workers' rights to organize will help rebuild the middle class and improve the quality of life for workers and their families.

Unions are essential to rebuilding America's middle class and improving the lives of workers and their families because they deliver higher wages, better benefits, and safer working conditions.

Unions deliver bigger paychecks for both union and nonunion workers.

Over the last eight decades, unions have consistently provided workers with a 10- to 20-percent higher wage.

The benefits of union membership are so strong that even the children of union workers enjoy greater economic mobility.

When union density is high, even nonunion workers receive higher wages.

Unions provide workers with a voice on the job to bargain for better wages and safer working conditions.

While the entire economy has suffered from massive job loss during the pandemic, union workers suffered fewer job losses because they were able to bargain with employers on how to respond to the pandemic.

Unions deliver greater access to affordable health care and a more secure retirement.

Private sector workers covered by a union contract are 27 percent more likely to be offered health insurance through their employer.

More than 9 in 10 unionized private sector workers have access to a retirement plan, compared to just 65 percent of nonunion workers.

Unions narrow both the racial wealth gap and the gender pay gap.

About two-thirds (65 percent) of workers age 18 to 64 who are covered by a union contract are women and/or people of color.

Union members of color have almost five times the median wealth of their nonunion counterparts.

Unions are one of the most effective solutions for closing the gender pay gap.

I urge all members to join me in supporting Jackson Lee Amendment No. 9 by voting for the En Bloc Amendment to H.R. 842, the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, or PRO Act, of 2021.

I want to remind us that, in the early 1900s, women worked in factories where they died. They simply died because there were no provisions, no protections; and they died with drastic fires and other devastating actions.

Madam Speaker, I ask support of this legislation.

Madam Speaker, I include in the Record a letter of support for the Jackson Lee amendment from the Government Accountability Project. It reads that they think that this is an especially important initiative to be added. I ask that in support. Government Accountability Project, Washington, DC, March 8, 2021. Hon. Sheila Jackson Lee, Member of Congress, House of Representatives, Washington, DC.

Dear Representative Lee: Thank you for your leadership through legislation to add whistleblower protection rights to the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959. That law strives for union accountability to its members and in management relations. Your bill reflects best practice rights that Congress has passed 16 times since 2005 in laws throughout the private sector. However, the reality is that not only employers abuse power and undermine worker rights. This legislation protects those who seek accountability within and by organizations whose mission is to protect employees.

As summarized below, your legislation would honor best practices by--

prohibiting retaliation against applicants, employees or former employees who are perceived as disclosing or assisting to disclose violations of the Act's provisions;

protecting both front line and management employees from retaliation;

extending identical protection to those who refuse to obey orders to violate the law;

providing an administrative remedy at the U.S. Department of Labor, with the right to a jury trial in federal court if there is not a timely decision;

governing enforcement with realistic Whistleblower Protection Act legal burdens of proof; and

so employees do not lose by winning, providing ``make whole'' remedies for those who prevail, including cancelation of all career damage, compensatory damages and costs including attorney fees.

Unless there are loopholes in the political mandate for accountability, this legislation should not be controversial. It merely applies almost identical legal rights in the labor- management context that Congress has enacted since 2005 for financial, food safety, consumer protection, energy, medical insurance and transportation whistleblowers. Thank you for your leadership. Please consider Government Accountability Project on call for further assistance. Sincerely, Tom Devine, Legal Director.

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I ask support of the Jackson Lee amendment in the en bloc amendment No. 1.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 842, the ``Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2021, or ``PRO Act,'' which protects the basic right to join a union by (1) empowering workers to exercise their right to organize; (2) holding employers accountable for violating workers' rights; and (3) securing free, fair, and safe union elections.

Our economy needs a strong middle class, and unions are essential to rebuilding America's middle class and improving the lives of workers and their families.

The erosion of America's middle-class is a direct result of decades- long assault on workers' rights, funded by wealthy special interests.

When workers have the power to stand together and form a union, they have higher wages, better benefits, and safer working conditions.

Workers seeking to organize a union frequently face a surge of intimidation and retaliation from wealthy special interests.

After decades of anti-worker attacks, union membership is at historic lows and inequality is at historic highs.

It is imperative that we begin to recognize that the American people support unions--over 64 percent of Americans and millennials appreciate the idea of having representation for better quality of life and work.

When workers have the power to stand together and form a union, they have higher wages, better benefits, and safer working conditions.

Protecting workers' rights to organize will help rebuild the middle class and improve the quality of life for workers and their families.

Unions are essential to rebuilding America's middle class and improving the lives of workers and their families because they deliver higher wages, better benefits, and safer working conditions.

Workers with strong unions have been able to set industry standards for wages and benefits that help all workers, both union and nonunion.

Over the last eight decades, unions have consistently provided workers with a 10- to 20-percent higher wage.

The benefits of union membership are so strong that even the children of union workers enjoy greater economic mobility.

Unions provide workers with a voice on the job to bargain for better wages and safer working conditions, and never has it been more important that all workers have a voice in the workplace and access to a union.

While the majority of workers who are currently working onsite at their workplaces believe they face considerable risk of COVID-19 infection, Black and Hispanic workers are more likely to fear risks from work than are White workers.

In fact, Black workers make up one in six of all front-line industry workers, putting them and their family members at greater risk of contracting and spreading COVID-19.

Without unions, many workers are forced to work without personal protective equipment or access to paid leave or premium pay.

When nonunion workers have advocated for health and safety protections or wage increases, they have often been retaliated against or even fired for doing so.

Workers' lives and the health and safety of working families depends on their ability to have a say in how they do their jobs.

While the entire economy has suffered from massive job loss during the pandemic, union workers suffered fewer job losses because they were able to bargain with employers on how to respond to the pandemic.

Unions deliver greater access to affordable health care and a more secure retirement.

Private sector workers covered by a union contract are 27 percent more likely to be offered health insurance through their employer.

More than 9 in 10 unionized private sector workers have access to a retirement plan, compared to just 65 percent of nonunion workers

Unions narrow both the racial wealth gap and the gender pay gap.

The right to a union and collective bargaining is also directly relevant to our urgent national conversation around racial inequality in its various forms, including economic disparities by race.

Unions and collective bargaining help shrink the Black-White wage gap, and this means that the decline of unionization has played a significant role in the expansion of the Black-White wage gap over the last four decades, and that an increase in unionization could help reverse those trends.

About two-thirds (65 percent) of workers age 18 to 64 who are covered by a union contract are women and/or people of color.

Union members of color have almost five times the median wealth of their nonunion counterparts.

Unions are one of the most effective solutions for closing the gender pay gap.

Madam Speaker, here are 36 reasons why Americans should be thankful for unions and remain committed to ensuring there will always be a strong organized labor movement in the United States:

1. Weekends

2. All breaks at work, including your lunch breaks

3. Paid vacation

4. FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act)

5. Sick leave

6. Social security

7. Minimum wage

8. Civil Rights Act Title VII (prohibits Employer Discrimination)

9. 8-Hour workday

10. Overtime pay

11. Child labor laws

12. Occupational Safety & Health Act (OSHA)

13. 40 Hour Work Week

14. Worker's Compensation (Worker's Camp)

15. Unemployment Insurance

16. Pensions

17. Workplace Safety Standards and Regulations

18. Employer Health Care Insurance

19. Collective Bargaining Rights for Employees

20. Wrongful Termination Laws

21. Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967

22. Whistleblower Protection Laws

23. Employee Polygraph Protect Act (Prohibits Employer from using a lie detector test on an employee)

24. Veteran's Employment and Training Services (VETS)

25. Compensation increases and Evaluations (Raises)

26. Sexual Harassment laws

27. Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)

28. Holiday Pay

29. Employer Dental, Life, and Vision Insurance

30. Privacy Rights

31. Pregnancy and Parental Leave

32. Military Leave

33. The Right to Strike

34. Public Education for Children

35. Equal Pay Acts of 1963 & 2011 (Requires employers pay men and women equally for the same amount of work)

36. Laws Ending Sweatshops in the United States

I urge all members to join me in supporting H.R. 842, the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, or PRO Act, of 2021.

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Newman).

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Georgia (Ms. Bourdeaux).

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Levin), a member of the committee.

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Tlaib).

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Torres).

Mr. TORRES of New York. Madam Speaker, a law is only as strong as the power to enforce it. For far too long, the NLRB has been too powerless to enforce the National Labor Relations Act. For too long, workers have been left to largely fend for themselves in the face of retaliation and intimidation and arbitration.

The PRO Act would breathe new life into the National Labor Relations Act. It would empower the NLRB to impose civil penalties on and empower workers to seek punitive damages against retaliatory employers. Most importantly, the PRO Act would preempt the Orwellian right-to-work laws so that union organizing is given the freedom to flourish everywhere in the United States.

The PRO Act requires an employer to disclose every time it seeks the services of a professional union-buster.

I am proud to introduce an amendment that requires DOL to make these disclosures available through an app. App-based notification would empower essential workers to be vigilant in defending their essential right to organize.

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, these amendments will provide whistle-blower protection for workers, expose violations of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act, require the Department of Labor to make employment arrangements and payments to union avoidance firms available and more accessible, clarify that nothing in the bill would expand the National Labor Relations Board's jurisdictional standards, direct the NLRB to establish a system of electronic voting in representation elections, clarify that nothing in the bill will be construed to amend the definition of employer or employee in any provisions of State law, direct the GAO to produce a study of the use of sectoral bargaining in peer nations, require that workers are informed of their rights under the bill in a language that they actually speak, direct the GAO to produce a study of the impact of the PRO Act's changes to the definitions of employee and employer, adds a 120-day timeline for the arbitration process when workers and employers are unable to reach a first bargaining agreement, and confirms that the bill will not affect existing provisions for worker privacy.

These amendments make meaningful improvements to the bill.

Madam Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote on en bloc 1, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, pursuant to section 3 of House Resolution 188, I rise to offer amendments en bloc No. 2.

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute.

Madam Speaker, we have heard a lot about complaints about the dues but what we don't hear are complaints about the higher salaries, safer workplaces, and better benefits that are accrued by virtue of investments from the unions. They enjoy those benefits, so it is not unreasonable to expect people to pay a fair share of those costs.

Now, fair share does not include the political activities, does not include the annual holiday parties, but those services that the union is obligated by law to provide, negotiating salaries, negotiating a safe workplace, individualized representation when necessary, whatever they do for union members they have to do for nonunion members, a fair share of those expenses is not unreasonable.

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Pocan.)

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute.

Madam Speaker, over 500 attorneys, including 244 Members of the American Bar Association, submitted a letter in support of the persuader rule. It does not require the disclosure of legal representation but only of persuader activities.

Employers hire union avoidance persuaders to consult with them, according to the Department of Labor in 2016, and between 71 and 87 percent of union elections persuaders produce antiunion literature and materials, write speeches and statements, and identify prounion employees for discipline or reward. The employees often do not know that their employer has retained such consultants in its campaign against the union. It is one of the things that they ought to have to disclose.

So, Madam Speaker, I hope that we will defeat this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Levin).

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Levin).

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Levin).

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Levin).

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, as a group, these amendments would erode workers' rights, slow down elections, allow workers to freeload, or even prohibit employers from agreeing not to interfere with the election. I would hope that we would defeat these amendments, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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