‘Employee Free Choice Act Sticks to Values We Care About’   by James Parks, Feb 22, 2007

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West Virginia workers rally for the Employee Free Choice Act.

Hotel maids in Minnesota, graduate teaching assistants in New York City and all types of workers in Detroit and Los Angeles have one thing in common: They are taking the case for the first major revision of the nation’s labor laws directly to members of Congress in a weeklong series of events.

In Rochester, Minn., Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), one of the 233 co-sponsors of the Employee Free Choice Act, rallied with union members outside the local Holiday Inn Express yesterday, where 18 workers, all union supporters, were fired three days before last Christmas when a new owner took over the hotel.

The workers, who say they were fired because of their union activity, have filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the hotel’s owners. Their firings, Walz says, are part of a larger problem—employers do not respect workers’ freedom to form a union and to have dignity on the job.

Despite what Big Business interests say, Walz says the Employee Free Choice Act is not anti-business.

It is not anti-business or pro-business. This is simply sticking to those values that we care about: equal pay for equal work, the ability to organize and ask for safe working conditions, for pensions and health care, there’s plenty of money for everyone on this.

In Rochester and more than 100 other cities across the nation, workers met with members of Congress and community leaders to push for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 800). At news conferences, worker roundtables, rallies and other gatherings across the country, workers and union and community leaders are connecting with more than 130 members of Congress—thanking those who support the Employee Free Choice Act and demanding better from those who don’t. Click here to find an Employee Free Choice Act event near you.

In New York City, three workers at a roundtable with five members of Congress described how employers intimidated and retaliated against them when they tried to form a union. Amy Cimini, a graduate assistant at New York University (NYU) told how the graduate workers voted to join Graduate Student Organizing Committee (GSOC)/UAW Local 2110 in 2000 and negotiated a four-year contract with the university. That contract expired last August, and the university refused to negotiate a new one and ceased recognizing the union.

The university’s actions came after the Bush administration’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in 2004 abolished federal labor law protections for graduate employees by reversing an NLRB ruling made during the Clinton administration. Nothing in the NLRB ruling prevents NYU or any other university from voluntarily recognizing a graduate assistants’ union.

In October 2006, the union reported the American Arbitration Association had certified that a majority of the graduate assistants in the bargaining unit had signed a petition reaffirming their commitment to the union.

In Charleston, W.Va., yesterday, more than 75 workers carrying “Employee Free Choice Act Now!” signs came together with religious and community leaders to urge Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) to support the Employee Free Choice Act. Capito has not said where she stands on the legislation, but union members in her district made it clear which side they believe she should come down on and they will hold her accountable.

This was the second rally in less than a week in West Virginia for the Employee Free Choice Act. Last Thursday, workers rallied at the state capitol in support of a state legislative resolution calling on Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

This weekend, hundreds of Michigan workers will meet with five members of that state’s congressional delegation in Detroit to boost their support of the Employee Free Choice Act. Michigan State AFL-CIO President Mark Gaffney says the act is critical to increasing America’s middle class:

Adding people to unions strengthens our middle class. As union membership has declined over the past 20 years, so have pensions, wages and the amount of health care. It is good public policy to make it easier for people to organize to get better wages and benefits.

Today, the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and the Los Angeles congressional delegation will hold a press conference to pledge support for the legislation. The L.A. press conference comes one day after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) reiterated that passage of the Employee Free Choice Act will be a top priority when Congress returns from the Presidents Day recess.

In San Francisco, Pelosi said it’s time to restore the right of America’s workers to form a union without harassment from employers.

Meanwhile, William Gould, a former chairman of the National Labor Relations Board, admitted the agency’s system of secret ballots is broken. The management-controlled election process determines whether workers can form a union. Gould, now a law professor at Stanford University, told the Chicago Tribune:

It is the old problem of justice delayed is justice denied.

Gould cited figures that show the NLRB process took an average of 802 days—more than two years—to resolve a disputed election in 2005 and nearly three-and-a-half years (1,232 days) in cases dealing with labor law violations.

Click here to see details of the Employee Free Choice Act.

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