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AFL-CIO Unions Signing Up More Workers Despite Skewed Labor Laws |
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Before Don Collette went to work for U-Haul in Las Vegas, he worked as an airline mechanic—an airline mechanic with a union contract. But at U-Haul, he faced a much different work environment, Collette said today.
I know what a union means. It means having decent wages, good benefits and a say in how things work. It means having a shot at a better life. That’s why my co-workers and I decided to form a union.
Collette spoke with reporters in Las Vegas this morning at an AFL-CIO briefing that highlighted the Employee Free Choice Act and outlined union organizing goals and achievements as part of the AFL-CIO Executive Council’s annual winter meeting.
Like too many other workers who try to form unions to bargain for a better life, Collette says from the day he and his co-workers filed for an election to join the Machinists (IAM), until he and 40 other workers were fired five months after they voted for the union, the company “did everything it could to scare us into not voting for the union.”
It held meetings, telling us that we’d lose our benefits if we voted for the union…threatened to shut the plant and move. It continued to fire workers that supported the union.
Today, Collette still is waiting to get his job back and his back pay as the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ordered in 2005.
If Collette and his co-workers had been able to make a decision on whether to form a union under the provisions of the Employee Free Choice Act—passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last week—U-Haul would have risked stiff penalties if it had harassed, intimidated or threatened workers. The U-Haul workers would have had a fair shake because the Employee Free Choice Act provides for a majority sign-up. Under majority sign-up, after workers sign cards saying they want to join a union and their signatures are verified, the employer agrees to recognize their choice.
Says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney:
The Employee Free Choice Act would go a long way to protect workers trying to form unions. That’s why it’s the most important improvement in labor in many decades.
Workers continue to struggle against a broken U.S. labor law system, which, under the current NLRB process, allows employers to mount aggressive and threatening anti-union campaigns. But a combination of workers’ strong drive to win a voice at work—60 million U.S. workers say they would join a union if they could—and newly dedicated union resources to organizing have helped 130,000 workers join unions in the past 18 months.
An AFL-CIO Organizing Snapshot, released at the briefing, highlights how AFL-CIO unions are doing more large scale organizing than ever:
In order to help working Americans regain economic power, unions must help them organize at a scale and pace that far exceeds what we’ve seen over the last decade. AFL-CIO unions have set the stage for such campaigns by running—and winning—more large scale organizing campaigns than ever before over the last 18 months.
Nearly all of these campaigns were won outside the broken NLRB process—often through employer-recognized majority sign up.
The snapshot points to the majority sign-up victories for 40,000 workers at Cingular who joined the Communications Workers of America (CWA); the 160,000 child care workers in Michigan, New Jersey, Oregon and other states who joined AFSCME, UAW and other unions; the 3,000 Navajo Nation workers who organized with the Mine Workers; and the more than 5,000 Rutgers University workers in New Jersey who joined AFT.
Says Sweeney:
We know that for America’s workers to have a real voice—we must help them organize at a larger scale and even faster pace. That’s why AFL-CIO unions are shifting resources—six AFL-CIO unions moved over $150 million in new money for organizing at their conventions—AFSCME, AFT, UAW, CWA, IBEW (Electrical Workers) and the Iron Workers. Resources combined, this will be the largest investment in organizing in the history of the American labor movement.
Later today, the Executive Council will take up the global economy and trade issues and brief the press on plans to challenge President Bush’s “Fast Track” authority and outline a vision for a trade policy that puts good jobs as the top priority.
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