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Vice Pres Biden Says He Supports The Employee Free Choice Act Key to Rebuilding Middle Class
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Employee Free Choice Act Now .Org | 03.05.2009
Vice President Joe Biden met with the AFL-CIO Executive Council today in Miami, where he reiterated the administration's support for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, saying, "If a union is what you want, a union you're entitled to have."
Vice Pres Biden Says He Supports The Employee Free Choice Act Biden to AFL-CIO: Employee Free Choice Act Key to Rebuilding Middle Class by James Parks, Mar 5, 2009 Vice President Joe Biden today told the AFL-CIO Executive Council meeting that returning our nation's economy to health means restoring the basic right to join a union and bargain collectively. And the way to do that is by passing the Employee Free Choice Act. He quoted President Obama saying: '"I don't buy the argument that providing workers with collective bargaining rights somehow weakens the economy or worsens the business environment." If you've got workers who have a decent pay and benefits, they also are customers for your business. So let me add to that and say that I have a simple, basic belief, one that we're going to work hard to put into action: If a union is what you want, a union you're entitled to have. The vice president quoted AFL-CIO President John Sweeney's recent remarks in his column expressing basic truths that should guide the AFL-CIO in 2009: We can't fix the economy by hurting workers. Rescuing the economy will require investments in jobs, infrastructure, health care. When you're in a deep hole, you need a long ladder. Rebuilding our broken economy gives us the opportunity to get it right and reward workers. Progressive, pro-family, pro-worker candidates won. So isn't it time that we have progressive, pro-worker, pro-family priorities that win, too? Click here to read the entire Sweeney column. Biden, who heads the White House Task Force on the Middle Class, told the council the Obama administration is dedicated to rebuilding the nation's middle class. You can't have a strong middle class without a strong labor movement. We will judge the success or failure of our administration at the end of our four years, based on whether or not the standard of living of the middle class has increased or not. That's the bottom-line measure. And guess what. Neither one of us believes it can get better without you getting stronger. The people Teddy Roosevelt used to call the "doers of deeds"-the people who teach our children, protect our neighborhoods, protect our homes. The people who staff our hospitals, who work on the line-on the lines that a few are working on these days. The people who are our nation's heart and soul, and I would add, our nation's spine. They are the spine of the nation. For too long, Biden said, we've failed to have a White House that puts families front and center in our economic policies. That's why the Obama economic recovery program focuses on jobs, he said, and the administration is pushing for real health care reform. He also said the Obama-Biden team would never have won without the support of working families. Biden's visit to the Executive Council follows a two-day visit from Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, who participated in a town hall forum on Sunday and met with the union leaders Monday.
Obama Tells AFL-CIO, We'll Pass The Employee Free Choice Act THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary Remarks of President Barack Obama - As Prepared for Delivery I'm sorry that I'm unable to join you this week, but it was a pleasure to see many of you at the White House recently, and I'm looking forward to having you all back often. I want to start by thanking President Sweeney, Secretary-Treasurer Trumka, and Vice President Holt Baker for their leadership. And I want to thank the Executive Council and all of you for your efforts as well as your advocacy these last several weeks. We have already started to change America on behalf of working people. With your help, we passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan - the most sweeping economic recovery package in our history. I've always said that the gauge of our economic progress is clear: are we creating good jobs? Are we creating the kinds of jobs on which you can raise a family, own a home, afford college, save for retirement? That's why this plan is so important. It will create or save three and a half million jobs over the next two years - and it will do so by putting Americans to work doing the work that America needs done. We'll modernize our health care system, rebuild crumbling roads, bridges, levees and transit systems, double our capacity to generate renewable energy, and build the classrooms that will help our children learn today - and compete tomorrow. And this plan includes the most progressive middle-class tax cuts in history; provides greater unemployment benefits for millions who have lost jobs; relieves overburdened cities and states struggling with budget shortfalls; and respects the work that Americans do right here at home while honoring our international obligations. I've signed legislation helping to guarantee equal pay for equal work and expanding the Children's Health Insurance Program to millions more children. We've reversed the ban on project labor agreements and we've overturned the previous administration's Executive Orders which were designed not only to undermine critical government work - but to undermine organized labor. I'm also pleased to have nominated Hilda Solis, a daughter of union members and a lifelong champion for working families, to be my Secretary of Labor - and that Vice President Joe Biden has agreed to lead my administration's Task Force on Middle Class Working Families. This Task Force will work hand in hand with my cabinet and White House agencies - as well as with all of you - to focus on growing and sustaining the middle class. I want to repeat something that those of you who joined us for the Task Force announcement heard me say: I do not view the labor movement as part of the problem. To me, and to my administration, labor unions are a big part of the solution. We need to level the playing field for workers and the unions that represent their interests - because we cannot have a strong middle class without a strong labor movement. The truth is, the road ahead will not be easy. The economic crisis we face is vast and the challenges we confront are many; you know this because your members have already had to make sacrifices. But I have every confidence that if we are willing to do the difficult work that must be done, we will emerge from these trials stronger and more prosperous than we were before. And as we confront this crisis and work to provide health care to every American, rebuild our nation's infrastructure, move toward a clean energy economy, and pass the Employee Free Choice Act, I want you to know that you will always have a seat at the table. Thank you for everything you do. For More Information on EFCA please visit our websites and blog http://www.employeefreechoiceactnow.org http://efcaunionbustingclub.blogspot.com/ http://www.FreeChoiceActNow.Org http://www.LaborUnionResources.Org For more information on Employer FEAR, Coercion and Intimidation Union Busting Tactics Press Below http://efcanow.blogspot.com/2009/02/just-say-no-to-employee-free-choice-act.html Tags: Employee Free Choice Act, Free Choice Act, EFCA, Secret Ballot, AFL-CIO, Joe Biden, VP Biden, Obama, Middle Class, Workers Rights, Labor Union, John Sweeney Sphere: Related Content Posted by Employee Free Choice Act Now . Org at 5:04 PM Labels: AFL-CIO, EFCA, Employee Free Choice Act, Free Choice Act, Joe Biden, John Sweeney, Labor Union, Middle Class, Obama, Secret Ballot, VP Biden, Workers Rights
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