Cummings: “Nobody Interested in Protecting American Jobs Should Support this Bill”

Sep 15, 2011
Press Release

Washington, DC – Ranking Member Elijah E. Cummings delivered the following statement today on H.R. 2587, legislation that would remove the only meaningful remedy available to workers if a company illegally outsources jobs overseas or moves operations out of state because workers engaged in activities protected under federal law. 

Below is Cummings’s statement as prepared for delivery.

“Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 2587.  The National Labor Relations Board exists to ensure that companies do not discriminate against workers who exercise their rights under federal law.  That protection prevents the illegal off-shoring of American jobs. 

“In 2000, for example, a California jewelry manufacturing company took aggressive action to discourage its employees from organizing – a right that is protected under federal law.  When the company failed, it announced plans to relocate its operations to Mexico.  The Board was able to prevent this from happening.  Using the authority this bill would eliminate, the Board prevented the company from moving American jobs to Mexico. If HR 2587 is enacted, companies will be able to ship jobs oversees in retaliation against American workers exercising their rights.

“Unfortunately, H.R. 2587 is part of a larger campaign to attack workers’ rights.  That campaign includes an investigation by the Oversight Committee into the Board’s ongoing prosecution of the Boeing Company for allegations of illegal retaliation against workers in Washington State for exercising their rights under the law.

“A Washington Post editorial warned that the Committee should not “sabotage” this ongoing legal process. And 34 legal professors urged the Committee to let the Board ‘do its job without undue interference.’

“Instead, the Committee issued a subpoena, threatened contempt, and even intimidated individual NLRB attorneys trying to do their jobs.

“If H.R. 2587 becomes law, even if Boeing is found to have violated workers’ rights, no remedy will exist to restore those rights to the workers.

“Nobody interested in protecting American jobs should support this bill.  I urge my colleagues to vote against H.R. 2587.”

112th Congress