News Advisory

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 10, 2010

Contact: Francis X. Callahan President, Massachusetts Building Trades Council Phone:   (617) 436-3551 f.callahan@verizon.net

STATEMENT OF THE MASSACHUSETTS
 BUILDING TRADES COUNCIL, AFL-CIO ON SENATOR SCOTT BROWN’S VOTE TO SUPPORT FILIBUSTER OF PRESIDENT OBAMA’S NOMINEE TO THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD

 

Official Statement of the Massachusetts Building Trades Council President
 Francis Callahan on Senator Scott Brown’s Vote to Support Filibuster of President Obama’s Nominee to the National Labor Relations Board

 

Scott Brown won his election fair and square under our democratic process in which the majority vote rules.  During the campaign, he promised to be an independent voice and rebuffed suggestions that he would vote in lock step with the Republican national leadership.  He also told the members of the Massachusetts Building Trades Council that, while he opposed the Employee Free Choice Act, he supported the right of workers to vote whether or not to join a union under the current majority rule provisions of the law.

 

Yesterday, less than a week after being sworn into office, Scott Brown turned his back on his campaign statements and on the principle of democratic rule.  Senator Scott Brown voted in lock step with the Republican leadership against allowing the United States Senate the ability to take a majority vote on President Obama’s nominee to the National Labor Relations Board.  Senator Brown is certainly within his rights to vote against the President’s nominee if he disagrees with him.  However, denying the democratically elected members of the United States Senate the right to vote on a nominee put forward by the democratically elected President of the United States is exactly the kind of party gamesmanship candidate Brown promised to oppose. 

 

The ramifications of this vote go beyond the hallowed halls of the US Capitol and the bedrock principle of majority rule.  They ultimately trickle down to the workplace.  This vote will deny workers their legally protected right to vote on whether or not they want to join a union. 

 

Before entering public life, Scott Brown enjoyed the benefits of being a union member – decent wages, hours and working conditions negotiated in good faith at the bargaining table.  After just a few days in Washington, he now says, “Craig Becker’s theories about how the workplace should function, if ever put into practice, would impose new burdens on employers, hurt job creation, and slow down the recovery.’’  Apparently Senator Brown thinks the principle of majority vote is only valid when his side wins.

 

Six days in office and already he has become part of the problem he told the voters of Massachusetts he wanted to fix.  Call me naïve, but I thought he would at least make it a week before breaking his promises.

 

For more information, contact Francis X. Callahan, President, Massachusetts Building Trades Council, AFL-CIO, (617) 436-3551.

 

 

 

 

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The Massachusetts Building Trades Council (MBTC) is an 89-year-old organization dedicated to helping working people improve their quality of life. We are comprised of 74 member unions representing over 75,000 working men and women across the state.

 

 

 

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