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House Committee Says Yes to Employee Free Choice Act |
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The House Education and Labor Committee beat back attempts to weaken or kill the Employee Free Choice Act, then voted late Wednesday to send the bill to the full House for a vote in the coming months.
The committee vote was 26-19 in favor of advancing the legislation (H.R. 800), which was introduced Feb. 5 and has the bipartisan support of 233 co-sponsors.
The Employee Free Choice Act would give workers greater freedom to make their own decisions about joining a union to bargain for a better life by:
- Establishing stronger penalties for violations of employee rights when workers seek to form a union and during first-contract negotiations,
- Providing mediation and arbitration for first-contract disputes, and
- Allowing employees to form unions by signing cards authorizing union representation.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says the House committee:
…is taking an important step toward restoring workers’ freedom. I look forward to working with other elected representatives from both parties to continue rebuilding the American dream—an America that works for working Americans.
The most significant of several amendments offered by Republican opponents of the bill would keep workers from forming a union by majority sign-up even when their employer agrees. It would force workers to continue to try to win a voice at work through the flawed National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election procedures.
Majority sign-up has been an option for workers and employers for 70 years under the nation’s labor laws, with no evidence of problems for workers or employers. Major employers such as Cingular and Kaiser Health Systems allow workers to form unions through majority sign-up, with less workplace conflict and disruption than the contentious NLRB process.
As several workers describe on the AFL-CIO’s Employee Free Choice Act website, the current election process allows employers to coerce, intimidate and harass employees. When workers try to form unions, 25 percent of employers fire at least one employee for union activity, 75 percent hire consultants to make it harder for workers to form their union and more than 90 percent require workers to attend mandatory anti-union meetings. (Click here to see more tactics employers use against workers seeking to form unions.)
During debate on the amendment (originally introduced as a separate bill by the late Rep. Charles Norwood (R-Ga.), who died Feb. 13), Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) claimed “there is no coercion” in the NLRB election process.
However, Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), a member of the Electrical Workers, set the record straight:
Employers can and do threaten to fire workers….Employers can and do threaten to close the business and move jobs overseas….[The amendment] undermines the right every human being should have to determine for themselves if they want to be represented by a union.
Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), the committee chairman and chief sponsor of the bill, debunked the myth touted by Republican and corporate opponents that the Employee Free Choice Act would prohibit NLRB elections. Miller said:
The Employee Free Choice Act is very simple. It says that if a majority of workers in a workplace sign authorization cards in support of a union, then they get a union. That’s it. Workers are still free to choose a National Labor Relations Board election if they wish.
Corporate front groups are mounting a massive campaign against the Employee Free Choice Act. (Click here to read about the cozy breakfast the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) had Wednesday morning with Vice President Dick Cheney.)
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce sent an e-mail to its “activists” telling them to gear up for a “virtual” March on Washington today to urge Congress to defeat the Employee Free Choice Act.
Like Cheney and NAM claiming to support workers’ rights, the Chamber, as part of the misleadingly named Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, claims to want to “safeguard” workers and their rights.
The e-mail promised to send a link ”to a website where you can create a ‘virtual’ you and ‘march’ on Washington.”
While they are creating “virtual” activists, you can be a real one by sending a message to your U.S. representatives telling them it’s time to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. Click here.
3 Comments
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If you would only focus as much on organizing as you do on this legislation. During times when workers have been physically harmed and lost there jobs unions have been able to organize.
Stop focusing so much on this fake hope that this will open up the gates to lots of people joining unions.
Clemens Wittekind
Our Struggle, the Union Struggle for Economic Justice should be waged on all fronts; Organizing, Legislation, Contracts,ect.
Educating the masses about the historic role of the Labor Movement and it’s involvement in Political and Social Justice is also part of the struggle.
Political, Social and Economic Justice make up the three pillars of a real Democratic Society.
This is one piece of Legislation that every worker needs to aggressively support!
Paul Hosse
Another Opinion-Editor and Publisher
(National Writers Union UAW 1981 AFL-CIO)