State, City Lawmakers Join Push for Employee Free Choice Act

by James Parks, Mar 26, 2007

The momentum for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act is building as lawmakers in dozens of cities, counties and states have either passed or are considering resolutions calling on Congress to pass the most important labor law reform in 70 years.

Last Tuesday, the Pittsburgh City Council unanimously passed a resolution calling on its congressional delegation to support the bill, which will level the playing field and allow workers to freely choose a union.

The U.S. House passed the Employee Free Choice Act on March 1 by a margin of 241–185. The bill is expected to be introduced in the Senate this week.

So far, legislative bodies in four states, one county and seven cities have passed resolutions backing the bill, including city councils in Baltimore, Detroit, Carson and Compton City, Calif., and Madison, Wis., and the King County (Washington) Council. Dozens more state and local bodies across the country are considering resolutions supporting the bill.

The state Senate in Minnesota and state Houses in both Kentucky and West Virginia took steps to support workers’ freedom to choose a union by passing their own resolutions backing the act. The Democratic caucuses in both houses of the North Dakota legislature are on record backing the bill. Click here for a list of all the state and local resolutions either introduced or passed to support the Employee Free Choice Act.

Although the resolutions vary, they all point out that:

• Unions benefit communities by strengthening living standards, stabilizing tax bases, promoting equal treatment and enhancing civic participation; and union workers receive better wages and benefits.
• Workers across the nation are routinely denied the freedom to form unions and bargain for a better life.
• Employers often refuse to bargain fairly with workers by dragging out first-contract negotiations after workers form a union.
• The Employee Free Choice Act will safeguard workers’ ability to make their own decisions without these abuses, provide for first-contract mediation and arbitration, and establish meaningful penalties when employers violate workers’ rights.

You can urge your state and local elected officials to back the Employee Free Choice Act. Click here to download a sample resolution or here for a sign-on letter for local officials or here for a letter for state officials.

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