Putting Democracy ‘Back in the Workplace’

by James Parks, Mar 1, 2007

Throughout the day, AFL-CIO Now will be live-blogging the Employee Free Choice Act floor debate on Capitol Hill.

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, started the debate today on the Employee Free Choice Act by declaring that workers have the right to join a union. But employers have taken away workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain for better wages and benefits through intimidation, harassment and changes in their work shifts.

Miller, who sponsored the bill, along with 233 co-signers, said:

We are here to redeem what has been in the law for 70 years. The law allowed workers to choose a union by majority sign-up or secret ballot. But then Congress gave employers veto power over majority sign-up. It’s time to empower employees to make their own choice in the workplace.

Republicans continued to harp on the idea that the secret ballot is sacred and that this bill would destroy this valued right. Rep. Howard McKeon (R-Calif.) claimed the bill placed democracy at risk and said its provisions would kill the secret ballot.

Several Republicans continued to sound that theme with Rep. Sam Johnson (R-Texas) claiming it would hurt small business because workers could sign authorization cards too quickly for the owner to respond. Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) called it “Orwellian democracy.” Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) even said passing the bill would endanger the nation’s health care by making it harder for nurses to do their jobs because of constant interruption by union organizers and making it harder to hire good nurses.

But Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.), a former small business owner, said if you read the law, workers would not just sign up for a union “on the back of a napkin.”

This procedure is fair to employers and workers. We must restore the balance so that workers have a choice. 

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) asserted the bill simply is about establishing choice in the workplace.

It is absolutely essential to stop this growing disparity between the haves and the have-nots. It is a challenge to our country. The current system of choosing a union is broken and undemocratic.

Hoyer pointed out that the Bush administration and congressional Republicans have fought against working people, including taking away the collective bargaining rights of federal defense employees. 

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) said workers’ rights are human rights and the only intimidation at the workplace is from employers. Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) built on that theme when she described her mother’s effort to get a union at her workplace and the workers she saw illegally fired when she tried to help workers get a union in her hometown.

Rep. Charlie Wilson (D-Ohio) said the Bush administration insists the economy is moving. But in his district,

the jobs are moving overseas. Workers who belong to unions earn 30 percent more in wages. They are more likely to have health insurance and pensions and better opportunities in life.      

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said passing the Employee Free Choice Act is an extension of the pledge of allegiance that representatives proudly recite each morning:

This is the most important labor law reform legislation of this generation. This is about basic workers’ rights, about majority rule and ending discrimination in the workplace and protecting jobs. When the majority of workers say they want a union, they get a union.

This bill puts democracy back into workplace and gives the right to freely choose a union. We demand this around the world and we should demand the same for workers in America.

Every day when we begin Congress with the pledge of allegiance, we clearly enunciate “one nation under God with liberty and justice for all.” We dishonor our pledge and God if we don’t work to promote justice for all workers.

Pelosi has made passage of the Employee Free Choice Act a top priority in the new Congress.

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