Ranking Member Scott Statement on October Jobs Report
WASHINGTON – Ranking Member Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (VA-03) released the following statement after the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the economy added 150,000 jobs in October as the unemployment rate ticked up slightly from 3.8 percent to 3.9 percent. Under President Biden’s leadership, the economy has added nearly 14 million jobs.
“Today’s jobs report once again underscores the strength of our economy under President Biden’s leadership. The Biden administration has consistently prioritized growing the economy from the bottom up and the middle out, including supporting our nation’s labor unions.
“Labor unions safeguard the middle class and play a crucial role in our economic growth. The United Auto Workers’ (UAW) tentative contract agreements with the Big Three automakers—General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis—are the latest examples of union workers’ power to negotiate for higher wages, eliminate tiered wage arrangements, and include automatic cost-of-living adjustments, among other key wins. While we wait for the workers to weigh in on ratification, we can already see their impact on non-unionized workers in the automotive industry, with Toyota raising the wages of its factory workers this week. Simply put, the UAW’s triumph in securing these tentative agreements affirms what the labor movement has known for generations: when workers exercise their collective bargaining rights, they can negotiate for higher wages, better benefits, and safer working conditions.
“Regrettably, workers need stronger protections to exercise their basic right to organize a union. That is why I am again calling on Congress to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, the most significant update for workers’ labor organizing rights in more than eight decades.”
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