AFL-CIO Ads Highlight How Nation’s Labor Laws Are Skewed Against Workers

by Mike Hall, Feb 7, 2007

Millions of readers of The New York Times, The Washington Post and a trio of influential Capitol Hill publications are learning what happened to Bill Lawhorn when he tried to form a union.

The day after he and his fellow workers narrowly lost an election to join a union and bargain for better wages and working conditions—after the employer’s intense anti-union campaign—Lawhorn was fired. Five years later he is still without a steady job.

His story is part of an AFL-CIO advertising campaign to bring to the public and lawmakers stories like his and the thousands of other workers who are harassed, intimidated and too often fired simply for wanting to join a union.

The ads, also appearing in The Hill, Roll Call and The Politico this week, dovetail with the introduction Monday of the Employee Free Choice Act in the U.S. House of Representatives. The legisislation has received bipartisan support, with 230 co-sponsors.

Lawhorn and other workers who want to form a union to bargain for a better life far too often face employer threats, mandatory anti-union meetings and intimidation tactics. (Click here to see stats and facts about how employers interfere with workers who want to join together in unions.)

The Employee Free Choice Act would put the brakes on those practices by:

• Establishing stronger penalties for violation of employee rights when workers seek to form a union and during first-contract negotiations.
• Providing mediation and arbitration for first-contract disputes.
• Allowing employees to form unions by signing cards authorizing union representation.

Lawhorn—a forklift driver for 11 years at the plant—and his co-workers didn’t have the Employee Free Choice Act protections in 2002 when they tried to form a union at Consolidated Biscuit Co., in McComb, Ohio. He and three-quarters of the 875-member workforce signed authorization cards saying they wanted a union because he says:

We wanted to be treated like human beings. We wanted a better life.

But the ad explains:

The company went on the attack. Harassment. Intimidation. Mandatory anti-union meetings. Threats to cut benefits and shut down the plant. Bill was told would lose his job. The company’s tactics succeeded with enough workers to tip the election. The next day Bill was fired.

Five years later, even after the National Labor Relations Board ordered Consolidated to reinstate Lawhorn with back pay and hold a new election, company appeals and delays keep him out of getting his job back.

The ads urge readers to contact their member of Congress to support the Employee Free Choice Act and to visit the AFL-CIO’s Employee Free Choice Act website to learn more. Click here to tell your members of Congress it’s time to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

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