January 15, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 8 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Pages H553-H554]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     THE PLIGHT OF AMERICAN WORKERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Jackson Lee). The Chair recognizes the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Brendan F. Boyle) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BRENDAN F. BOYLE of Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, I rise to praise 
what must be two corporate CEO superstars based on just how much they 
have made in compensation.
  The first is Irene Rosenfeld who was CEO of Mondelez/Nabisco. Over 
the last 5 years she was paid over $100 million, and her successor--who 
makes Ms. Rosenfeld look poor by comparison--Mr. Dirk Van de Put in 41 
days was paid $42 million.
  Now, $42 million for 41 days of work, $105 million for the last 5 
years' worth of work, you must think: What superstars these two are. 
What great achievements or great invention did these two CEOs come up 
with?
  Here is what they have done leading Nabisco.
  They closed the factory in Philadelphia in my district that employed 
hundreds of people for over 60 years. They closed a similar plant in 
Chicago that employed over 600 people. By the way, when I say employed, 
I am not talking about minimum wage jobs. I am talking about good, 
family-sustaining jobs.
  Now, where did these jobs go?
  To what other part of the United States did they go?
  Salinas, Mexico, where workers, instead of getting family-sustaining 
wages, are getting paid approximately $1.50 an hour. That is wrong. 
When you wonder why there is such angst in our

[[Page H554]]

economy today, despite the historically low unemployment rate, this is 
why.
  In case you think that Philadelphia and Chicago might be exceptions 
to this Nabisco business model, they have also done it in Pittsburgh, 
Houston, Niles, St. Elmo, Buena Park, and as I have mentioned, of 
course, Philadelphia and Chicago.
  This is greed on steroids.
  So the next time you crave an Oreo or crave Chips Ahoy!--both Nabisco 
brands--Madam Speaker, I urge you to take a look at the back of the 
package and see whether or not it was still made in the United States 
or if it is one of the products that is now made in Mexico.
  Madam Speaker, I also urge you to do this: contact your Member of 
Congress and say that you are not going to accept trade deals and tax 
policies that allow this sort of disgraceful behavior to happen--the 
hollowing out of American middle class jobs.
  It is wrong, and we the elected officials of this country have to 
stand up for the American worker.

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