Tale of Two Workers Shows Need for Employee Free Choice Act

Asela Espiritu
Daniel Luevano

Two workers, Asela Espiritu from California and Dan Luevano from Colorado, stopped by the AFL-CIO building in Washington, D.C., this week to talk about what happened when they and their co-workers sought to form unions and win a better life. They were in the District of Columbia for the annual Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Awards, given by the worker advocacy group American Rights at Work. Espiritu and Luevano’s stories couldn’t have been more different.

It’s all because Espiritu’s freedom to organize was respected by her employer, while the opposite was true for Luevano. The contrast between the two is another powerful example of why it’s so vital to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, which will level the playing field for millions of workers like Luevano seeking to form unions. The U.S. House passed the Employee Free Choice Act on March 1, and it’s now in the Senate.

Espiritu is a registered nurse at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center-Orange County in Anaheim. After patients are out of surgery, she cares for them in the recovery room. Espiritu says when she and her colleagues sought to join United Nurses Association of California/Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP), which is part of AFSCME,

[w]e were treated decently by the management. We organized our union without resistance from them.

That’s because Kaiser has a nationwide policy of neutrality in union organizing campaigns—unlike the union-busting practices of many employers who try to intimidate, harass and even fire employees who want a union—and Kaiser also respects majority representation (card-check). In other words, if a majority of workers in a Kaiser facility sign cards saying they want to be represented by a union, they get their union fair and square, without having to go through the meat grinder-like National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) process.

Kaiser was true to its word. Espiritu and the other nurses won their union. The result, says Espiritu, is that

Kaiser has become the employer of choice for nurses in Southern California. We have lift teams and workplace safety. Our vacancy rate is at its lowest. We became the best place to give care. It should be like this for nurses everywhere.

At Ries Electric in Keenesburg, Colo., where Dan Luevano worked as an electrician, seven of the company’s 10 employees signed cards saying they wanted to be represented by the Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 68. The owner flat-out refused to accept the union and began a steady attack against their efforts. Says Luevano:

He called us all into the backroom individually and interrogated us about who had signed cards. I tried to explain why I thought a unionized work force would help the company succeed, but he became very angry and yelled at me. He threatened to fire me and all of my co-workers if we formed our union.

That was on a Friday. The next Monday, when Luevano came in to work, he found he and his apprentice were fired. Although the union filed charges and he won reinstatement to his job (it’s illegal to fire workers seeking to form unions), Luevano was shabbily treated by the company and given little work. Meanwhile, the management campaigned against the union, threatened Luevano’s co-workers, held mandatory anti-union meetings and even hired several new employees to vote against the union. Finally, when the NLRB held an election, the company’s tactics paid off and the workers lost. The vote was a tie, which meant they were denied their union.

Today, Luevano is no longer with Ries. The good news is that he’s now a union electrician.

Going to work is now a lot less stressful. I enjoy going to work knowing I’m being respected and I’m doing quality work. The pay is way better. I have a pension. I can afford health care coverage for my family. My kids are athletes. Now, when they’re out there playing, I don’t have to worry every minute that they’re going to get injured and we can’t afford to take them to the hospital.  

He adds:

I just wish that our choice to form a union at Ries Electric had been respected. We could have made it a rewarding place to work.

Luevano is one of millions of workers who are working to make that wish a reality.

(You can help, too. Click here to tell your senators to vote for the Employee Free Choice Act.)

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