00:00Good morning. I'm Greg Cassatt. I'm proud to represent the heart of Texas and be chair of the Progressive Caucus.
00:09But before any of that, I was a labor organizer and I'm still proudly an AFSCME 1624 member.
00:15Now, whether you are identified as a progressive or a blue dog Democrat or if you're a conservative voter, you know that collective bargaining is there to take care of you and take care of your family.
00:33And that is why the majority of the members of the United States House say that they support this legislation to restore collective bargaining rights to our workforce.
00:45The question for Republican members of Congress is will they vote the same way that they talk?
00:52And that's the question that we need to present the American people, because in Texas, we talk about some folks that are all hat and no cattle.
01:02And this is the moment of truth for those members of Congress on the Republican side.
01:08Will they vote with their own voters to support workers' rights in their own districts?
01:14Will they vote how they talk or are they all talk?
01:19And that is the question that's presented to us, because working people in this country deserve politicians that do more than talk.
01:26They want to see us actually stand up for them.
01:29I'm so grateful to Congressman Jared Golden for walking the walk and leading here in Washington, D.C.
01:37on restoring collective bargaining rights to every American worker and to my colleagues here and also to the labor presidents and labor leaders for your fight in this time.
01:47What President Donald Trump has done by taking collective bargaining rights away from one million workers is he is letting everyone know across the country that he wants to come for you next.
01:59If Trump is allowed to take collective bargaining rights away from our federal nurses, then he's going to come after truck drivers next.
02:09If Donald Trump is allowed to come and take collective bargaining rights away from people taking your call at the Social Security Administration, then he's sure as hell coming for construction workers next.
02:20If Donald Trump is allowed to take collective bargaining rights away from our veterans, then he's coming for you next.
02:27And the House Democrats are united and a significant number of even House Republicans have said that they will support restoring collective bargaining rights for these workers.
02:41And the question is, will they actually vote for it?
02:44I hope that the answer is yes, but I know that voters will hold us accountable for making sure that we do work for the people, not just for the billionaires who want tax breaks or the big corporations who want to be able to pay you less and less while they charge everyday Americans more and more.
03:01So we we know that our voters want to see us put up a fight and Representative Golden working alongside Congressman Fitzpatrick and the whole House Democratic Caucus are ready to put up a fight for working Americans.
03:16And I think that everybody here in the press should be watching this closely because we hear big talk from some Republicans saying they want to be the party of workers or party of the working class.
03:26They put their name on bills like this.
03:27We're just calling for an actual vote because this is the biggest erosion of collective bargaining rights in our lifetimes.
03:35And we have a chance to turn it around.
03:39Like I said, I'm so grateful to our federal workers every day and even more grateful to their union leadership who fight every day on their behalf.
