Miami-Dade County the Latest to Support Employee Free Choice Act

by Mike Hall, May 9, 2007

The Miami-Dade County Commissioners unanimously adopted a resolution supporting the Employee Free Choice Act yesterday, to the cheers of the more than 60 union members in the audience and the two workers who told commission members about their struggles to form unions in the face of volatile and hostile anti-union campaigns by their employers.

Fred Frost, president of the South Florida AFL-CIO, says the resolution:

…is about hope and opportunity for the regular ordinary working people living in Miami Dade County and this country….As with most areas of the country, the inequity of wealth is striking in our community….Where workers have the freedom to join unions if they so desire, it provides a better life for their families….Union contracts are the best economic uplift and middle-class builders for working people. Good jobs make families, our community and its economy stronger and make your tax base larger to afford the social services so many people so desperately need.

Noel Colon told the commission about the employer harassment, intimidation and threats he and other workers endured during a recent narrow defeat to win a voice with the Electrical Workers. Maria Ramirez spoke about how she and some dozen other workers were forced to stage a hunger strike at the University of Miami before finally winning their union.

The Employee Free Choice Act would put the choice to form unions in the hands of workers, not employers. The House passed the bill March 1. The Senate bill, S. 1041, is expected to come to a vote later this year. Click here to urge your senators to support the Employee Free Choice Act.

Miami-Dade joins more than 30 other city, county or state bodies that have approved or are considering resolutions urging Congress to pass the bill. (See the full list here.) In addition to commission action, union members from the South Florida AFL-CIO have signed petitions at union meetings and worksites urging the state’s two senators to back the legislation and are working with other local governments to pass resolutions.

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