| Labor and Trade |
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 For 13 years, I cut the lining for men’s suits at Seaford Clothing Factory in Rock Island, where I also served as union leader and President of UNITE HERE local 617. There, I saw first-hand the struggle of hard-working Americans to make ends meet. Like me, they were ordinary working people merely wanting the opportunity to own a home, earn a decent living, raise their family in a safe neighborhood, afford healthcare, send their kids to college, and in the end have a little left for retirement. This job for me is about making people’s lives better. I believe I can do that by fighting for better wages, secure pensions, adequate health care coverage, and for workers to exercise their right to organize and collectively bargain, which is why I am a strong supporter of the Employee Free Choice Act. This legislation requires employers to recognize a union formed by a majority sign-up and increases penalties for breaking the law. Above all, it restores fairness to the process by letting employees decide how they want to form their union. As a member of the House Subcommittees on Workforce Protections, and Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions (HELP), I am committed to reforming the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) to hold employers more accountable for the health and safety of their workers. Additionally, I am focused on saving employer-sponsored retirement and health care plans. I also belong to the House Trade Working Group, an active organization that fights for fair trade policies which protect American jobs, lift people out of poverty, and preserve our natural resources. In Galesburg, NAFTA drove 1,600 Maytag jobs to Reynosa, Mexico. I have seen the devastation this caused to Galesburg and all of western Illinois. I will not vote for any trade agreement that will outsource another single American job. |