by James Parks, Jun 25, 2007

Sen. Sherrod Brown at last week’s Employee Free Choice rally.

The Senate is debating the Employee Free Choice Act today, leading up to a likely vote on cloture tomorrow.

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), who sponsored the legislation, along with 46 others, laid down the gauntlet to his colleagues today in the Senate:            

The system today is broken. Workers know it. Employers know it. Too many of them (employers) want to keep it that way. We have a chance to change that. The time to act is now. If we want a stronger economy, a fair economy. It’s the right thing to do and the time to do it.

 Tomorrow, the Senate will vote on a measure, known as a cloture motion, which will determine if the Senate is even allowed a straight up-or-down vote on the Employee Free Choice Act. 

Kennedy says one reason to vote for the bill (S. 1041) is that the income gap within America is growing at an alarming rate:

We are seeing an America growing apart. It doesn’t have to be this way. When America was at its best, it wasn’t this way. Those with super wealth are accumulating more. Those at the lower end are losing more. The great middle class is constantly challenged.

The only way to ensure economic security for the nation’s middle class is to rebuild the nation’s unions by leveling the playing field to allow workers to freely decide whether to join a union, Kennedy says.

At DMI, a progressive policy institute that looks at ways to strengthen America’s middle class, Amy Traub emphasizes the connection between strong unions and a strong middle class.

Giving more Americans the choice to join a union would be a significant step toward rebuilding the American middle class and alleviating the squeeze. That makes the Employee Free Choice Act one of the most important bills Congress has considered this year.

But current laws have created “absolute warfare” in the nation’s workplaces as employers routinely illegally fire workers, hold one-on-one meetings with workers and threaten and coerce workers who support a union, says Kennedy.

That’s exactly what this legislation is designed to address. The odds are stacked against workers.

Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) discussed how Americans loved former Polish President Lech Walesa when he led the fight for freedom as head of the labor union Solidarity. But he said while we ought to respect what workers abroad have done, we also ought to respect what American workers have done:

This country has been better and moved forward from workers being organized.  We need workers. American workers are not disposable. In recent years, we have decided Americans should work to a different standard, and that standard is a worker in China making 30 cents an hour. If you can’t compete with that, too bad!

Workers have lifted America up. Now brick by brick, that structure is being taken apart. If we believe a worker has a right to organize, then that right ought to be available, not denied or abrogated. 

In a speech that demonstrates how far Republicans and Big Business will go to stop employee free choice, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) likened the bill to a Communist dictatorship that stifles free speech. Both McConnell and Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) repeated the Big Business mantra that the bill would eliminate the secret ballot vote for a union.

Bob Geiger skillfully rebuts that falsehood and exposes it for what it is—a scare tactic:

While they’re really hoping that they can scare the hell out of working Americans by implying that this bill will actually result in them losing rights—if not being dragged outside and beaten senseless by fictional union thugs—they are, of course, lying through their capped teeth.

“The Employee Free Choice Act does not abolish the secret election process,” said Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) in rebutting the GOP’s silly claim on Friday. “That would still be available. The bill simply enables workers to form a union through majority signup, if they prefer that method. “Brown is referring to the fact that S.1041 would give workers the ability to bypass a special election—a process which affords employers a lot of time to themselves come in and intimidate workers into voting against their own self interest—and agree to unionize based simply on the majority of them signing cards declaring their desire to form a union.

Click here to read all of Geiger’s great post.

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) says:

Things are unbalanced in today’s workplace. This bill is not employer vs. employee. Employees want a level playing field. They want strong business so there will be good jobs.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) says unions are good for America:

“When there is union participation in the workplace, everybody wins.”

Harkin warned we as a nation cannot allow unions to become weakened. He illustrated his point by telling an emotional story about his brother who worked for 23 years in a plant where he was represented by the UAW. When the plant was bought by a union-busting company, the new owners forced a strike and replaced the striking workers with replacement workers. Eventually, the replacement workers voted the union out, destroying Harkin’s brother’s livelihood.

And what does a 54-year-old deaf man do in a predicament like that? He got a job as a janitor at a shopping mall, working nights for minimum wage, with no benefits and no vacation time. It didn’t just destroy his livelihood; it broke his spirit.

That’s what happens when unions are weakened. The middle class is destroyed.

Harkin’s speech echoed what Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) said on the floor Friday:

If we give more opportunities for workers to express their heartfelt opinions about wanting a union—and they will [want a union]—we’re going to see more workers in safer workplaces, with a decent living wage and good health insurance and corporations will still make a profit. (See video.)  

Click here to urge your senators to support the Employee Free Choice Act.

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