From the debate about a bill that would require that some employers give sick days to their workers - transcript of the Connecticut Senate, May 29, 2007:
SEN. COLAPIETRO:
Thank you, Mr. President. Ladies and
gentlemen, you can see the differences between businesses and workers. I come
from the working families. Is this thing working?
I come from a working family, and now I've
got a mic that works. I don't have a crystal ball, like the gentleman who spoke
a little while ago, what could possibly happen, but I come from a working
family.
I worked in a factory all my life. I didn't
go to Harvard. I didn't go to Yale. I didn't go to any of those places like
that, so I know what the real world is about.
I can't, for the life of me, understand why
somebody blames me for businesses moving out of the state. I know some business
owners myself who left the State of Connecticut because they had a house down
in Naples, Florida, that we, the poor people, gave them the money in order to
get rich on.
I have a problem with some of these people
saying it's all our fault, as workers, that they're leaving the State of
Thank God I was a union member. We made
enough money to pay these people so they could get rich and leave the State of
It's not my fault businesses closed. I worked
for the General Motors' plant. That plant closed. Do you know why it closed?
They had a five-year plan, and that five-year plan meant that they were going
to try to build the same spindle that we made in
You know, they couldn't make them in
Everything that we ever made here in
It's not because of bills like this that
people are leaving the State of
I don't have a lot of sympathy for some
business, and nobody in this room, and I've said this before, on record, nobody
in this room can say they did more for businesses than I did.
I've got a record to show that. I didn't just
talk. I acted. I wish I had that crystal ball that said what could happen, but
it doesn't, and it doesn't happen that way.
It didn't happen in my factory, and it didn't
happen in General Motors. General Motors left because they made more money
overseas, in plain English. They got rich doing it.
In the meantime, those people overseas have
formed their unions, and they have gotten more money, and now their economy is
supposed to be struggling. How in the world am I going to support a business if
I don't have any money to buy their widgets with anymore?
That's what's happening, and I've said it
over and over again. People who go to work for a living don't have any
expendable money, because somebody is getting rich on them.
I'll give you a perfect example. Go by the
gas pumps. The stockholders, according to the stockholders themselves, are
doing very, very well. They said so.
Well, the guy at the pump is not saying he's
doing very well. So you can talk all you want about why people are leaving
It just doesn't happen like you say. Somebody
also said $ 40,000- or $ 50,000-a-year jobs. I know a lot of people who would
take those jobs right now, right this very minute. Where are they?
If they're going to move, where are they
right now, because I've got a lot of people in line. I'm sure the AFL/CIO or
somebody will show you we've got lots of people ready for those jobs.
I don't know where there are any $ 40,000- or
$ 45,000-a-year jobs. Mr. President, I would support this as six days per year.
If you're going to close because you can't afford six days a year, and give
people a decent working wage, they you ought to move down south or overseas.
I've worked with businesses for 14 years,
since I've been up here, not 13, 14 years. I've done everything businesses have
wanted, within reason, without hurting the working folks.
You don't come up here and argue. When I was
on the Labor Committee, I had chaired the Labor Committee, it was businesses
against the unions. That's what it was over there.
I'm over here now, on the General Law
Committee, which I've done for 13 years, and it's businesses against
businesses. There's no difference, so wake up, guys.
Let's help the folks of our districts. Let's
help those people who have to go to work every day. Let's do something for
them, and vote for this bill. It's a simple bill. Six days a year, one hour it
takes to maintain the 40 hours you have to work in order to get one hour of
your time.
I just can't understand why somebody would be
so adamant that you would threaten to close your business, because you may have
to, if you employ 50 employees. I don't know too many people in here that do.
We have businesspeople in our caucus who said
raise it to 50, and I'll vote for it. I commend that person. They are honest.
They are honest businesspeople. They are people who know that it's going to
make a stretch.
I'm a believer of the old country, you know,
everybody's got to suffer a little bit, all the way down the line. We can all
live together, but now the way it's going, poor businesses are hurting so bad
that let's go clobber the worker, the guy who's got to go to work every day and
pay his rent.
You're not going to be able to pay your rent.
You're not going to pay your light bill. You're not going to pay for a car, and
you're not going to buy anything.
You're not taking your kids for a ride
anymore on Sundays, because you can't afford that. You've got to conserve so
somebody can get $ 280 million a year. It just sticks in my craw. I'm sorry,
folks, but that's the way I feel.
I'm going to vote for this bill, and I'm
going to urge my colleagues to vote the same. Thank you, Mr. President.