43 Senators Now Back Workers’ Freedom to Form Unions

by James Parks, May 19, 2006

The effort to pass legislation to strengthen workers’ freedom to choose union representation continues to build. Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) agreed this week to co-sponsor the Employee Free Choice Act, bringing the number of co-sponsors to 43 in the Senate and 216 in the U.S. House.

In April 2005, a bipartisan coalition reintroduced the Employee Free Choice Act. The act would require employers to recognize a union after a majority of employees signs authorization cards. It also would provide for mediation and arbitration of first-contract disputes and authorize stronger penalties for violation of labor law when workers seek to form unions.

The bill follows the model established by employers such as Cingular Wireless that have agreed to be neutral and respect their employees’ choice. As a result, a year after its merger with AT&T, some 17,000 former AT&T employees have joined the Communications Workers of America (CWA). Overall, the union represents some 40,000 Cingular employees who work under union contracts providing regular wage increases, good benefits and a voice on the job.

Even though some 57 million workers say they would join a union, according to research by Peter D. Hart Research Associates, employers routinely mount vicious anti-union campaigns and use the federal union elections process to coerce workers to vote against the union.

Last year, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Center for Urban Economic Development reported that when faced with organizing drives, 30 percent of employers fire pro-union workers, 49 percent threaten to close a worksite if the union prevails and 51 percent coerce workers into opposing unions with bribery or favoritism.

Despite support from 259 members of Congress, Republican leaders aren’t likely to allow a vote on the Employee Free Choice Act even if it does gain majority support. A more likely scenario would bring a vote on legislation backed by Big Business and anti-worker lawmakers that would ban the majority sign-up process.

The Bush administration’s National Labor Relations Board, which is charged with protecting workers’ freedom to form unions, has systematically been reducing the coverage of federal labor law, ruling recently that the law does not apply to college graduate assistants, among others.

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