Report Gives House’s Extreme Anti-Worker Agenda a Failing Grade
by Joye Barksdale | August 08, 2012
If extreme right-wing Republicans in the House of Representatives were students, they’d have to repeat a grade. The “Working Families Report Card” gives them an “F” when it comes to creating jobs and protecting workers’ rights.
The report was released by U.S. Rep. George Miller, ranking member of the Committee on Education and the Workforce. The committee is comprised of 40 members – 23 Republicans and 17 Democrats.
According to the report, right-wingers in the House have failed working families in four critical areas: job creation and keeping American jobs from being sent overseas; protecting workers’ paychecks; protecting workers’ rights; and protecting workers’ health care and retirement security.
Of protecting workers’ rights, the report said this: “Although the right to organize has been under assault for decades, the 112th Congress saw an assault waged with unprecedented ferocity, mirroring similar anti-union campaigns across several states.”
The report highlights efforts by the House majority to drastically cut the National Labor Relations Board’s budget, which would have furloughed all staffers for much of the year. In addition, House Republicans attempted to pass several bills that would have weakened the law that guarantees workers in the private sector the right to organize and bargain. One of those bills, dubbed the Election Prevention Act, would have delayed workers’ attempts to hold an election for union representation, enabling employers to stall and ultimately prevent votes.
On health care, House Republicans “made more than 30 attempts at taking away working families’ patient protections while keeping their own government-provided health care.” In addition, the report says the House majority “has passed dozens of measures that would not only take away patient protections, but end Medicare and harm Americans’ retirement security in the process.”
The House majority may be failing working families, but when it comes to doing damage to the economy, ensuring that job creation remains anemic, and lowering wages, they’re at the top of the class.
