Former Labor Secretary: Employee Free Choice Would Help Revive Economy

by James Parks, Mar 3, 2008

In a column in today’s San Francisco Chronicle, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich says the Employee Free Choice Act is important to reviving the nation’s economy. Reich says:

The American economy is in trouble largely because lower and middle-income workers no longer have the buying power they need to keep it going. Inequality is wider now than it’s been in more than 70 years. Unions could help reverse this trend.

Using the example of workers trying to form a union at St. Joseph’s Hospital in the Bay Area, Reich points out: 

Nowadays, even though polls show most workers would organize a union if they could, the process is so complicated that it’s rare they even get to choose…it’s been difficult for low-wage workers to organize themselves into unions. Employers often fire or intimidate those who take the lead.

The Employee Free Choice Act, which recently passed the House of Representatives, “would let workers have a union if a majority wants one, in a simple up-or-down vote,” Reich said. 

Many policymakers and economists, including Dean Baker, whose Point of View column can be found on the AFL-CIO website, agree with Reich that passing the Employee Free Choice Act would be good for the economy.

Click here to read Reich’s column and here for Baker’s Point of View.

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