Washington, D.C. – Today, Congressman John D. Dingell (D-MI15) decried House Republicans’ efforts to curtail workers rights. By a vote of 238-186, the House passed H.R. 2587, the Protecting Jobs from Government Interference Act, which would prohibit the National Labor Relations Board from ordering the re-opening of production lines closed due to union activities. Dingell submitted the following remarks into the Congressional Record:
“Mr. Speaker, I rise in unequivocal opposition to H.R. 2587, the Protecting Jobs from Government Interference Act. This devious legislation carries on in my Republican colleagues’ fine tradition of masking hard truth with pithy and inaccurate turns of phrase. H.R. 2587’s goal is not to protect jobs, but rather to neuter the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the protections it affords America’s working men, women, and their families.
“In point of fact, H.R. 2587 will prohibit the NLRB from reinstating production lines closed as retaliation for union activities. The bill will also prevent the Board from issuing any order that rescinds any relocation, transfer, subcontracting, or outsourcing of work by a company as retribution for union activities. As I have said, this bill does nothing to offer increased protections to American workers. It will, however, protect union-busting activities by businesses that are still sitting on billions of dollars and asking for a tax holiday for repatriated profits, yet all the while making precious little effort to add new jobs.
“Mr. Speaker, my friends on the other side of the aisle are using a pending dispute between the NLRB and a certain airplane manufacturer to justify the supposed need for this abominable legislation. H.R. 2587 is explicit proof of the Republican Party’s strong desire to wipe out the very unions that built this country’s middle class and make sure American workers have no better protections that their brethren in third-world countries.
“I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill and yield back the balance of my time.”
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