More Governors Join Push for Employee Free Choice

by James Parks, Jun 21, 2007

We reported that 14 Democratic governors signed a letter supporting the Employee Free Choice Act. Now the number has grown to 16. Govs. Martin O’Malley (Md.) and Joe Manchin (W.Va.) are the latest to show they back giving workers a free choice to join a union without employer interference.

Debate began June 19 in the U.S. Senate on the bill (S. 1041), which would level the playing field when workers seek to form a union. The governors join the nearly 1,300 state and local elected officials who have expressed support for the legislation in all 50 states.

In the letter, the governors say:

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.

Click here to read the letter.

To date, 55 cities, counties and state legislatures have passed resolutions in support of the Employee Free Choice Act. Meanwhile, state legislatures across the country, including New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Oregon, have passed majority authorization legislation for public-sector workers, a key provision in the Employee Free Choice Act. Click here for a list of resolutions supporting the legislation.

In addition to O’Malley and Manchin, the governors who have signed the letter are presidential candidate Gov. Bill Richardson (N.M.) and Govs. Bill Ritter (Colo.), Rod Blagojevich (Ill.), Chet Culver (Iowa), Kathleen Sebelius (Kansas), John Baldacci (Maine), Jennifer Granholm (Mich.), Jon Corzine (N.J.), Eliot Spitzer (N.Y.), Ted Strickland (Ohio), Ted Kulongoski (Ore.), Edward Rendell (Pa.), Christine Gregoire (Wash.) and Jim Doyle (Wis.). 

Print This Article | E-Mail This Article |Comments (0)