My grandfather, Bill Donovan, worked at GM and was a proud member of UAW Local 233. He had good medical benefits, a pension, and with hard work, he was able to provide for his family. Because of that union job, my mom went to college and I was able to fulfill my dream of becoming a Navy helicopter pilot.
Unions helped build our middle class and I will always stand with workers’ right to organize to fight for fair wages, better healthcare, and safe working conditions.
I was proud to support legislation in this Congress to increase the minimum wage to $15, as well as the Butch Lewis Act to protect worker pensions. The American Rescue Plan protected the pensions of tens of millions of Americans in multiemployer pension plans at risk of insolvency without cutting their benefits whatsoever. I also strongly support the National Labor Relations Board, and at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, I urged House leadership to include funding to develop a system and procedure to conduct union representation elections electronically in any legislation responding to COVID-19.
I was proud to introduce the Strengthening Unemployment Programs to Provide Opportunities for Recovery and Training (SUPPORT) for New Workers Act to help unemployed Americans return to work by ensuring that they don’t lose income when they take a new job, while also continuing to provide critical assistance to millions of people who can’t find work. The House also passed, with my strong support, the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which would significantly increase workers’ right to collectively bargain without illegal interference by their employer. I am also pushing for the House to vote on the bipartisan Social Security Fairness Act, which would remove the windfall elimination provision that has unfairly impacted so many retirees’ pensions.
The legislation we’ve passed to fix our infrastructure and invest in domestic manufacturing includes major wins for workers in New Jersey. The Gateway Tunnel will bring more good union jobs and other projects funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the CHIPS and Science Act will bring good-paying, union work to our state long into the future. I helped to ensure that tax incentives and assistance for the construction of new infrastructure and facilities were accompanied by robust prevailing wage requirements and labor protections. Both the CHIPS and Science Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law include these pro-labor provisions.
I remain committed to boosting job growth in our state through increased funding for educational programs, including vocational and technical training and apprenticeships our unions provide, so we can better support the next generation of workers.