 We are going to get started momentarily. We want to thank people for their patience. We probably will get a few more members from the press. We're coming out of the Governor's Press Conference, but we did want to get started in time for many senators, especially in House members, to get to the floor. I wanted to take a moment to recognize who's standing with me and behind me. I stand before you as the Chair of Senate Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs. My name is Patricia Rom-Hinsdale, we'll have other speakers, but we've been joined by Labor unions and other supporters from near and far. I think at least one of our speakers will note that the same time we are considering a right to organize constitutional amendment in our Senate, the New Hampshire Senate is looking at right to work legislation that would dismantle union organizing power. We have members from all over New England who do work in Vermont, who live in Vermont, who are present today. So if every union organization could make sure that you've been named, and we'll just go around and start with the painters. Painters and Allied Trades, District Council, Territory Park. International Union of Operating Engineers, born in the 1980s. Professional firefighters of Vermont, IASF International Association of Firefighters. Dark Islanders, Regional Council of Carpenters, Local 349 and 352 here in Vermont. Carpenters, Local 349. Vermont State Employees Association. Local 693, Plurals and Pipers of Vermont. Painters and Allied Trades, DC-35. Painters and Allied Trades, District Council 35. Laborers, International Union of North America, Local 668. Intincts through Local 597 out of Mary Vermont. Colin, I think it's here. Okay. Vermont and EA. You must be on Local 4. Oh, that's right. Thank you. Martha, I appreciate your position with the Democratic Party, if you want to mention that. And the labor representative, which is great. And then Melinda Booth. I'm with the Vermont State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, which is a federation of many of the unions you just heard from. Yes. So we have many unions represented today, not just those who sit at the AFL-CIO table, but we thought this helped as a visual to show that there's a united front for our labor organizations, supporting a really monumental constitutional amendment that has just advanced out of the Senate Economic Development Housing and General Affairs Committee on a unanimous vote. Yes. So we are now, we have now taken the first step as a state to seeing Proposition 3, the right to collectively bargain and organize a union and remain part of a union. We've now seen it take its first step from the Committee of Jurisdiction and move toward a full vote of the Senate. For those of you who may not know, as the Chair of Economic Development, I sit in between our Republican Minority Leader and our Democratic Majority Leader. We have other wonderful talented members of our committee. Senator Harrison is going to be reporting the Constitutional Amendment on the floor. And Senator Ann Cummings also chairs the Powerful Finance Committee in addition to sitting on our committee. So a really solid committee membership gave this proposition its first boost. We don't anticipate that it needs to go to another Senate committee before it goes to the floor and just as a refresher, so no one else has to try to remember this, it needs to go through the Senate and the House this year and then through the Senate and the House again next biennium. And if all of the timing works out, then it would be on the ballot for Vermont voters in November of 2026. So it still has a long road ahead of it, but it's taken its first step with a unanimous vote and I will just say to frame up as I turn it over to my colleagues, many states are now deciding whether they are going to be a misnamed right to work state, a state that does not support unions and collective bargaining or they are going to support their unions and remain a state that supports collective bargaining in the face of deep and major challenges to union organizing at the federal level. You'll hear more about that from our other speakers. So right now I'd like to turn it over to the reporter, no I'd like to turn it over to the originating senator of this legislation, Senator Nader Hashim and I want to note as he comes up that he gave this constitutional amendment to us with the help of the labor folks you see here with 20 co-sponsors. So that already gives it quite the support it needs to know that we have confidence in it making through the Senate and the rest of the process. Senator Hashim. Thank you. Thank you everyone for coming out today and thank you to all the representatives from the different unions around our state and our region. And I also just a note for the 20 co-sponsors that we have some gratitude towards them because that's also bringing us into tripartisan support for this proposal as well. So if anyone is to look back on the history of unions they would see that they've been here for almost as long as our country has had its independence. And as with most things throughout history there's a sort of pendulum that swings back and forth when it comes to how unions are perceived here. And while support for unions is rising among workers there is a continuous and growing push from people who hold the power and the money to prevent unions from forming in the future. And while the future is never written in stone we can certainly create more confidence for our workforce by ensuring their right to unionize and by clearly signaling that unions are welcome in Vermont. This proposal is one of the most important steps that we can take to push back against the attempts to disenfranchise our workers and unions. Now my first real exposure to unions came from the first job that I held here in Vermont which was a union job with the state police. And while I had an idea of what unions did before that their importance became very clear to me when I started seeing how the benefits that they campaigned for over the years helped everyone in the agency. Whether it was the length of the workday, retirement, workplace safety or any of the other benefits the union helped ensure that the workers were taken care of. Now fast forward to today and like with many other places we have our workforce challenges and there are many steps that can be taken to overcome those challenges. And I know that our Senate Economic Development Committee is regularly devoted itself to improving our workforce and Prop 3 is one of those many steps that we can take to ensure that the right to unionize is codified in our constitution and that the rights of future workers in our state will be protected. So thank you all for coming today. I appreciate Senator Hashim reminding us this is indeed a workforce development bill as well and one of the ones we're most proud of. I would like to turn the floor over to Senator Wendy Harrison continuing the Windham County representation who we in Senate Economic Development don't often have constitutional amendments originate from our committee so it's you know we have a brave new member who's going to be taking on reporting this on the floor. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks to everyone for being here and I am just so excited about this bill and to be part of this bill and I thank the chair very much. This amendment is necessary to protect existing laws that protect Vermont workers. It would provide protection for these rights from future federal or state action. This is not an imaginary threat. It's very real. These laws are possible. These protected laws are possible because of the 1935 National Labor Relations Act. Just last month two of the United States largest corporations Amazon and SpaceX strategically questioned the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board. These giant companies have good reason to think that the Supreme Court should they be presented with the question that they would agree with the plaintiffs. Why should we care? From a twenty twenty one report by the Economic Policy Institute quote unions are not only good for workers they're good for communities and for democracy. There's a correlation between higher levels of unionization in states and a range of economic personal and democratic well-being measures in the same way unions give workers a voice at work with the direct impact on wages and working conditions. The data suggests that unions also give workers a voice in shaping their communities where workers have this power. States have more equitable economic structures social structures and democracy. In the Economic Development Housing and General Affairs Committee we heard compelling testimony from Vermonters who have stable employment safe workplaces and critical benefits that they do not take for granted and they understand that this is because they are a part of a union. Jean a retired union carpenter shared how she was able to build her own retirement home both because of the skills that she got gathered from the union she learned from the union and the pension that made it financially possible. We heard about the importance of protection to nurses firefighters and the alarming part we heard about the erosion of these rights in other states. The misnamed right to work laws and state constitutional amendments which I think should be called the right to be worked amendments are being considered and adopted all over the country. The Supreme Court has been increasingly hostile to organized workers. In 2014 the court established right to work for home care workers and other publicly funded care workers. In 2018 the court established right to work for all public sector employees. In 2021 the court undermined the right to organize by restricting rights to access employees on their work sites. An upcoming case that would potentially undermine unions right to strike is on the way or has been filed and is being considered. While President Biden is currently the most pro labor president in modern history there is a risk that other administrations could be much more hostile to workers and sign anti-worker legislation. We do know that the current Supreme Court will continue to erode workers rights and we cannot rely on them to protect the right to collectively bargain. The Vermont workers rights amendment would prevent any law from being passed that would interfere with, negate or diminish Vermont's right to collectively bargain. I am so proud to support this bill and I look forward to the consideration by the legislature and most importantly by the Vermont voters who could consider the amendment as early as November 2026. Thank you. So without much preamble I'm going to invite our Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman up to speak a friend of labor who has to gavel in in five minutes to speak. I'll give permission to the other senators to not be there. Not that they need my permission when I first bang the gavel. I stand here in solidarity with with all of our union brothers and sisters to speak both in support of this constitutional amendment and appreciation to the chair and the committee members for the vote. 5 0 is absolutely a very powerful and important start to this. I want to speak to the importance of unions with respect to aspects of U.S. history and present as was just spoken with respect to current Supreme Court potential and current Congress challenges. Folks who aren't members of unions should still be very supportive of this. When you look back through history whether it's the work week and the hours whether it's a minimum wage whether it's battles we've fought for creating universal health care someday we'll get there union members fight not only for the workplace that they're in but their leadership and advocacy helps for monitors across the spectrum whether they're members of unions or not. So I think they deserve a lot of credit for that because they don't have to take that burden on for everybody else. But as we organize and have more unions they'll do better work for themselves in their workplace fighting for the rights for those workers. But also in this process here as we look at our economic system that generally holds every day workers down while money gets concentrated at the top. And so if you are an everyday person struggling to pay your bills you should support this amendment you get that opportunity to vote in fall of 2026. And so that's what I want to say with respect to appreciation for the work not only that our union brothers and sisters do in our schools in our hospitals building our workplaces and our homes and every other aspect public safety but also in the everyday workplace situation and daily life for ordinary for monitors. Thank you. So before they have to go I want to know we have also had some House members with us. We have representative Connor Casey who serves on the Committee of Jurisdiction that would receive this bill I believe representative Dennis LeBounty who's been a labor leader as you heard inside and outside of the building. We had representative Chip Treano here who has also introduced a lot of labor legislation and is the vice chair of institutions and corrections in the House. So we're grateful to be joined by members of the House who will be receiving this amendment after crossover. I'd now like to turn to our labor partners our family in the labor community and start with Larry Mokwin who's done tremendous work and you know is the reason we have a lot of supporters here today and who lined our room as we took the boat. Thank you Larry. Thank you for having me. My name is Larry Mokwin and I'm a regional organizer in the New England region of the Laborers International Union of North America. I also serve as the vice president of the Vermont Building and Construction Trades Council. On behalf of the Vermont Building Trades and our over 3,000 members and workers throughout the state. I want to thank and commend Senator Rom Hensdale and the second Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs for moving proposal 3 also known as the Workers' Rights Amendment out of committee to the Senate floor this morning. This is the first step of an important process to ensure that the laws which protect workers in Vermont today remain the same for generations to come by enshrining them into our Constitution. You may ask why do we need proposed amendment? We know that we have strong laws here in Vermont. The answer is very easy and clear. Workers all over this country are being attacked by rogue legislatures. These legislatures are passing laws that are creating unlevel playing fields for workers to be able to provide for their families, live prosperous lives and have a chance to retire in dignity. Most of these anti worker laws are being introduced or passed throughout the United States by campaigns funded by out of state special interest groups with an agenda that excludes workers and their well-being. They're only worried about the profits their donors generate on the backs of the workers they're exploiting. To make sure the workers of Vermont never have to worry about a rogue legislature of our own, we must protect our strong labor laws by amending our constitution so our grandchildren's grandchildren will have the same rights we have today in 2024. Vermont and its legislature are trend setters when it comes to putting people, our values and our rights front and center. Historically, the Vermont legislature has allowed Vermonters to make their own decisions on important socioeconomic issues. Like the proposed three, a couple examples of Vermont values and democracy and motion and at work are just 16 months ago. Post row, the reproductive rights amendment overwhelmingly passed and almost a quarter century ago in 2000, Vermont was ahead of the time as the first state to legalize civil unions. The state of Vermont is made up of people from across political spectrums. In many ways, Vermont is somewhat of a conservative state in the traditional meaning of the word conservative. We value our rights and we value our freedoms. We believe that we all deserve the opportunity to succeed and to live in the manner that we choose. The workplace should be no different. Vermont workers deserve the right to organize and be protected when they choose to join together to do so. We the workers and constituents of Vermont are excited and hopeful that the Senate acts swiftly and sends prop three to the house, getting us one step closer to November 22, 26, when we the people would like to decide. Thank you. Thank you, Larry. We're probably just gonna start to lose some of our senators who have to go to the floor. Our last speaker that I'm aware of unless somebody wanted to say a few words is Chris Duby from the professional firefighters of Vermont, another friend of labor who sits in the legislature and fights for working Vermonters every day. Thank you, Senator. So I'll be brief. I don't have any real prepared statements, but I am Chris Duby, the president of professional firefighters of Vermont. Our main organization is the International Association of Firefighters. So when I gave my testimony, I gave it on a perspective of some of the issues that our members have faced throughout the country with regards to organizing and collect the bargaining rights. We're very fortunate in this state that generally unions get recognized. That's not the case around the country. We have public safety locals in the South where they are required to sit at the table and negotiate the town, the municipality, the state, whatever does not go to the table. This we feel this proposal, this proposition would change that it would mandate that they come to the table and at least talk with our members. We actually have a state believe it or not that they have a law that explicitly forbids public safety unions from negotiating for a contract. So as I said, we stand in support of this bill. We think it is a major step in the right direction to ensure that all of our workers have a right to organize, a right to collective bargain. As our president on the international says, who's in a better position to negotiate for safer work conditions, not just for the workers, but also for the public, than the people that are actually on the ground doing that work. So like I said, I'll keep it brief. And I want to thank the committee, Senator Ram, Senator Sheen, all the ones, this is, I mean, when they bring us up on the international level to my boss, they're actually a static that the Vermont is taking the lead on this. So it makes me proud to say that I was proud of that. And again, thank you for your hard work. And we look forward to getting it over to finish line. Thank you so much. With that, I'll just add in case I didn't say it before that if and when Vermont passes this constitutional amendment, it will become the second state to do so with this language with language supporting the right to unionize and collectively bargain. Illinois passed this in 2022. And Pennsylvania has the same language under consideration as well. Before I go to questions, you know, I just like to say something that I said in committee, we have the Department of Labor in just before we took a vote on this and they may or may not have known that they were helping make the case for this bill. But we get wage information from them every year. And usually the jump in wages even in an inflationary environment where wages are going up is something like 40 to 50 cents on average per year. This past year, the average wage went up by $1. This is their preliminary findings that they're sharing with Boston and getting confirmation. But I said something and they couldn't confirm it. But I believe it to be true. I believe that a big part of that huge increase comes from the organizing of the AFT in our new one of our newest unions of the lowest paid workers at UVM Medical Center. That is a lot of women and new Americans who work in environmental services who were making far under $20 an hour. And as a new union, they negotiated that no one would make under $20 an hour working at UVM Medical Center. That's money that's pumped into our economy in the hands of working Vermonters. And it came from union organizing. So this matters here. It matters that we strongly support unions moving into the future and keep our economy as democratized as possible in the face of threats at the federal level. Thank you so much. And we're available to any questions glasses back on. But I think people had to go. So we're good. Okay.