by James Parks, Jun 20, 2007

President Bush has threatened to veto the Employee Free Choice Act, which should come to a vote soon in the Senate (S. 1041). But the presidential elections are just 17 months away, and many of the candidates, unlike the current resident of the White House, support workers’ freedom to form unions.

The Employee Free Choice Act, which was passed 241–185 in the U.S. House of Representatives in March, would allow workers to decide how they want to choose a union and would enable them to do so without employer interference. 

Democratic Sens. Joe Biden (Del.), Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), Chris Dodd (Conn.) and Barack Obama (Ill.) and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio) all are co-sponsors of the Employee Free Choice Act.

Former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) co-sponsored the Employee Free Choice Act when he was in Congress. Gov. Bill Richardson (N.M.) has signed on to a letter from Democratic governors backing the legislation. 

Seven Democratic presidential candidates have come out in support of the Employee Free Choice Act, and several Republicans are on record opposing it. Here’s what they have to say about the Employee Free Choice Act. 

Democrats supporting the bill.

 Joe Biden: 

There is a middle class for one reason and only one reason in America. Organized labor. That’s why it exists….This administration has lined up 10 deep to strip away 100 years of labor progress.

Hillary Rodham Clinton:

This bill is about giving people choices and protecting workers’ fundamental rights. Unions helped to build the middle class in this country. To rebuild our middle class, we need to restore a level playing field for unions and give them a meaningful opportunity to organize for better wages, stronger benefits and safer working conditions.  

 Chris Dodd: 

I’m proud to say over 32 years I have stood with unions. The Bush administration seems determined at every turn to undermine basic workers’ rights in this country: overtime pay, the right to collective bargaining, attacking public workers whom we charge with some of the nation’s most important responsibilities.

John Edwards: 

Organized labor has been the most important anti-poverty movement in American history—strengthening the middle class and providing good-paying jobs for millions of Americans. We need a president who will make it easier for workers to organize themselves into unions, not work against them. If a Republican can join the Republican Party by signing their name to a card, any worker in America ought to be able to join a union by doing exactly the same thing. 

Dennis Kucinich: 

It is the restoration of the rights of workers that will put us at the dawn of a new political age. The rights of workers are core principles of an American Restoration. These aren’t mere political principles. These are timeless moral principles, about fairness, about equality, about justice. 

Barack Obama: 

[House passage of the Employee Free Choice Act] said loud and clear that if most workers in an organization want a union, they’ll get a union. And now we’re gonna make sure the Senate passes the Employee Free Choice Act, too.  And then we’ll let the White House know that the working men and women of America believe it’s time to make this the law of the land. 

Bill Richardson:

When workers try to form unions, all too often they are harassed, intimidated and even fired for their support of the union. These attacks on workers’ rights, for which there are only weak—if any—remedies, occur all too frequently among the most vulnerable workers of our society, including women, the working poor of all races, and recent immigrants. As a result, those workers who need unions the most are often those who have the least chance of achieving the benefits of unionization. 

Of the Republican presidential candidates serving in Congress, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) is not a co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act and Reps. Duncan Hunter (Calif.), Ronald Paul (Texas) and Tom Tancredo (Colo.) voted against the bill when it passed the House in March.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) falsely say the Employee Free Choice Act would take away the right to secret ballot elections. The Employee Free Choice Act would ensure workers have the choice between secret ballot elections and majority sign-up, or card-check—and so would expand workers’ options for forming unions.  

Former Sen. Mike Gravel (D-Alaska) and former Republican Govs. James Gilmore (Va.), Mike Huckabee (Ark.) and Tommy Thompson (Wis.) have not taken a position on the Employee Free Choice Act.

Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, who plans to announce his candidacy in July, has not yet stated a position on Employee Free Choice.

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