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Debate Begins in the Senate on Employee Free Choice Act |
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Debate began this morning on the most important labor reform legislation in 70 years. After years of hard work and political action, the Employee Free Choice Act (S. 1041) is poised to pass in Congress.The bill comes to the floor after working families have generated huge support across the country to change the nation’s labor law to give workers a voice in the workplace. Working families logged more than 7,000 calls to U.S. senators in support of the legislation during a National Call-In Week. More than 1,200 elected officials in all 50 states have voted in support of resolutions calling on Congress to pass the bill. (Get the full list here.) Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), who introduced the bill, along with 46 co-sponsors, said on the Senate floor this morning:
Working people aren’t getting their fair share of our economic growth. Their hard work is producing skyrocketing corporate profits—not higher paychecks, better benefits or better lives for their families. The best way to see that employees get their fair share is to give them a stronger voice. [See video.]
Kennedy, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP), also said the Employee Free Choice Act, along with the recently passed increase in the minimum wage, are the first steps to “restore the economic security that has been lost during the Bush years.”
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who chairs the HELP Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety, said:
It’s time to give workers back their voice. Workers should be able to share in the prosperity they helped to build. Unions empower their members to access better benefits. Unions forged a way for America’s working families—union and nonunion—to share in the benefits they created.
The Employee Free Choice Act helps us find the right balance between employers and employees.
The House passed the Employee Free Choice Act by 241–185 on March 1. If enacted, the legislation would allow workers to decide how they want to choose a union. The act would give workers the option to use majority sign-up, which is much faster than the management-controlled representation election process and leaves less time for employers to harass and intimidate workers to discourage them from joining unions.
Both Kennedy and Murray pointed out that recent polls show 60 million workers would join a union if they had the opportunity. But when workers try to gain a voice on the job by forming a union, employers routinely respond with intimidation, harassment and retaliation, even firings. Murray said:
Workers shouldn’t have to risk losing their employment just to exercise their right to join a union.
Debate on the bill is expected to continue throughout the week.
1 Comment
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I am doing everything I can to rally support in states like Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. Local Central Labor Councils on which I serve are doing excellent work getting City Councils in places like Allentown and Philadelphia to support the EFCA.
I personally discussed this issue with state legislators in Maryland and lobbied most Tennessee members of Congress.
Even if Bush vetoes the bill, we need to keep pushing for passage until we get a new President in 2008. We should never give up on this legislation.
After passage, we should start pushing for repeal of the anti-worker Taft-Hartley Act!