June 27, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 109 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Pages S4617-S4618]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                PUBLIC SERVICE FREEDOM TO NEGOTIATE ACT

  Ms. HIRONO. Mr. President, conservative, rightwing forces in our 
country are engaged in an all-out assault on working people. Their 
target? Private and public sector workers and the unions who are 
fighting on their behalf. While private sector unions at least have 
some protections under the National Labor Relations Act, public 
employees have been historically forced to rely on Supreme Court 
precedent to protect their basic rights.
  That is why the Court's decision last year in Janus was so damaging. 
In one fell swoop, the Court overturned more than 40 years of precedent 
from the Abood decision and barred public sector unions from collecting 
fair share fees from employees who had opted out of the union but whom 
the union is still legally required to represent.
  The Supreme Court's decision in Janus was not unexpected. Its 
decision was the culmination of decades-long efforts by groups like the 
Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation to undermine settled 
precedent in Abood in order to weaken public sector unions. These 
groups worked methodically to achieve their goals.
  First, Justice Alito all but invited a challenge to Abood when he 
wrote his decision in Knox v. SEIU Local 100 and Harris v. Quinn. He 
called the justification for allowing a union to collect fair share 
fees ``an anomaly.'' He said ``the Abood Court's analysis is 
questionable on several grounds'' and laid out the grounds as he saw 
them for someone to bring a case to overturn Abood.
  This was an open invitation to conservative groups to then go looking 
for a plaintiff to do just that--to create an opportunity for the 
Supreme Court to overturn Abood. They funded Friedrichs v. California 
Teachers Association, which was fast-tracked to the Supreme Court in 
2016, where ``the signaler,'' Justice Alito, awaited the case. Public 
employee unions received a temporary reprieve in a deadlocked 4-to-4 
decision because of Justice Antonin Scalia's unexpected death.
  The well-funded conservative interests then saw a huge opportunity to 
fill the vacancy with a Justice to their liking. From applauding 
Senator McConnell's single-handedly blocking the nomination of Merrick 
Garland to spending millions to confirm Neil Gorsuch, they wanted a 
Justice who was on their side.
  They got it in Neil Gorsuch, who delivered the decisive fifth vote in 
Janus, torpedoing 41 years of precedent under the pretext of protecting 
``fundamental free speech rights.'' Justice Elena Kagan saw right 
through this argument. In a strong dissent, she said: ``The majority 
overthrows a decision entrenched in this Nation's law . . . for over 40 
years . . . and it does so by weaponizing the First Amendment, in a way 
that unleashes judges, now and in the future, to intervene in economic 
and regulatory policy.''
  Undermining public employee unions and, in fact, all unions has 
gained momentum because of the conservative majority on the Supreme 
Court. With this narrow majority, we are likely to see a lot more 5-to-
4 decisions on ideological, partisan lines. This is not good for the 
country and not good for the credibility of the Court. We need a 
Supreme Court that strives to achieve consensus as often as possible, 
not one pursuing a hard-right ideological agenda.
  In the face of these onslaughts from the Supreme Court and 
conservative interests, unions are fighting back. We have seen tens of 
thousands of teachers taking to the streets in cities and States across 
the country demanding and in many cases securing more investment in 
schools, smaller class sizes, and a living wage for teachers.
  In the year since Janus, public sector employee unions like AFSCME 
are adding thousands of new dues-paying members energized to fight back 
against the conservative assault on unions' very existence.
  Our public employee unions are doing their job to stay in the fight 
and Congress needs to do its part. That is why I joined 35 of my Senate 
colleagues and 27 of my House colleagues this week to introduce the 
Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act of 2019.
  This legislation affirms to all 17.3 million public sector workers 
nationwide that we value their service to the public and that we are 
fighting to protect their voice in the workplace.
  Our bill codifies the right of public employees to organize, act 
concertedly, and bargain collectively in States that currently do not 
afford these basic rights.
  Under our legislation, States have wide flexibility to write and 
administer their own labor laws, provided they meet the standards 
established in this legislation, and it will not preempt laws in States 
that substantially meet or exceed this standard.
  The right to organize shouldn't depend on whether or not your State 
has robust worker protections, like the State of Hawaii, and workers 
shouldn't be held captive to the anti-union bent of the Roberts Five on 
the Supreme Court.

  The fight to protect the right to organize is not an abstract issue. 
Unions have lifted people into the middle class, especially women and 
people of color.
  I speak from personal experience. When I was a young child, my mother 
worked for years in low-wage jobs that provided no job security, no 
healthcare, and no stability. We lived paycheck to paycheck. That all 
changed when my mother and her coworkers organized and formed a union. 
That union happens to be the CWA.
  Unionization brought job and economic security to our family. Our 
public employee unions are fighting on behalf of millions of people 
across our country who are serving our communities. They are our 
teachers, our firefighters, social workers, EMTs, and our police 
officers. They are us.
  These are not normal times. We all need to come together to fight 
back against an all-out assault on working people.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.
  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I want to first of all thank Senator Hirono 
for introducing one of the most important bills this session. It is all 
about collective bargaining rights. It is all about workers' voices 
being heard and all about the dignity of work.
  Just last week I was with Senator Hirono with a number of her 
constituents from her State, and they talked about her support for 
manufacturing or especially her support for workers. I was particularly 
pleased when she mentioned the Communications Workers of America. I 
have staff with me on the floor--some of my Ohio staff, including my 
State director, who came out of the CWA. I know how important workers' 
rights are. So I thank Senator Hirono for introducing this bill. If we 
did nothing this session but pass that legislation, it would be a huge 
victory for workers.
  Unfortunately, we have a Supreme Court that puts its thumb on the 
scales of justice in every case, choosing corporations over workers, 
choosing Wall Street over consumers, choosing, in far too many cases, 
health insurance companies over sick people. And today's Supreme Court 
case is aimed and targeted directly at States like mine, Ohio, a State 
that is a swing State and has 12 Republican House Members, 4 Democratic 
House Members and has had that same configuration of 12 and 4 for 4 
State elections because of redistricting. But it is no surprise, with 
the Supreme Court deciding that they were

[[Page S4618]]

going to put their thumb on the scale of justice again, against voting 
rights, against civil rights. That is what has happened in support of 
corporate money.
  So dark money has affected the special-interest Supreme Court. We 
have never seen a Supreme Court in my lifetime that is this beholden to 
corporate interests, that is this beholden to billionaire contributors, 
that is this beholden to special interests. We have never seen a Court 
like this.
  What does this mean? It means that instead of citizens choosing their 
elected officials, it is politicians choosing whom they represent. That 
is why you get these districts that will stay 12-to-4 Republican, where 
voters have no real say in these elections because of the way it is 
lined up.
  We have a Supreme Court that is hostile to voting rights, hostile to 
worker rights, hostile to women's rights, hostile to LGBTQ rights. That 
is what this Supreme Court has given us, as Senator McConnell, in his 
office down the hall, continues to push judges like this who don't look 
toward the public interest. They are always looking toward rewarding 
their billionaire contributors.
  Again, I thank Senator Hirono for her work.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Utah.

                          ____________________