Boswell stands up for average working Americans, offers amendment to “Election Prevention Act”

Leonard Boswell

Des Moines, IA – Congressman Leonard Boswell (IA-3) today spoke out against H.R. 3094 which attempts to strip important rights from American workers.

H.R. 3094 would require specified waiting periods before unionization hearings and elections can take place, effectively running out the clock on workers who wish to organize.

“This legislation won’t create one job and it won’t reduce our deficit by one dollar,” said Boswell. “It won’t add one job for unemployed construction workers to fix Iowa bridges. It won’t reduce unemployment for members of the Iowa National Guard that returned from Afghanistan this summer. Instead of creating jobs and reducing the deficit, we’re debating a bill that allows a small number of companies to make it harder for their workers to organize.”

Boswell’s proposed amendment would prevent employers that have paid any executive compensation bonuses in excess of 10,000 percent of the annual compensation of the average employee from engaging in open-ended litigation. These employers would also be required to state their issues or positions at the outset of pre-election hearings, and would be prohibited from raising new, frivolous issues as a dilatory tactic.

“I don’t worry about many employers using such abusive practices, but as we’ve seen, there are always some that seek to enrich their CEOs while denying their workers a fairer and safer workplace,” Boswell continued.

“This is a simple principle: if your average employee makes fifty-thousand dollars, and you can afford to pay the CEO a bonus of $5 million, then you can also afford to be prepared for the hearing in 14 days, and state your positions up front.”

The Boswell amendment to H.R. 3094 can be viewed here.