Bonior: Election Crucial for Workers

by Seth Michaels, Jun 18, 2008

When working families go to the polls this fall, they won’t only be deciding between candidates. They’ll be determining whether workers will have a say in their own lives and a stake in the economy.

Former Rep. David Bonior (D-Mich.) has just resumed chairmanship of American Rights at Work, after serving as campaign manager to former Sen. John Edwards’ presidential effort, and he says this election offers an opportunity to reverse the deep damage that’s been done to workers’ rights and the middle class under Bush. The economy will be the top issue for voters, and the next president and Congress could make changes that will help workers. In particular, he points to the Employee Free Choice Act as an essential part of making the economy work for everyone.

This is an incredibly important election for working people. The failure to elect a pro-worker majority will result in continued diminution of workers’ rights. Our laws are already stacked against workers.

Bonior says legal barriers and corporate intimidation are interfering with workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain, leading to a decline in union density that has undermined wages, employment and benefits.

Workers have continued to bear the brunt of the failed policies of the last eight years. We want to change this dynamic and give people a voice at work.

He says the United States is nearly alone among industrialized countries in seeing declining union membership—and declining union membership helps explain why wages are stagnant despite growth in productivity. Union members are more likely to have good wages, benefits, pensions and job security, but without a voice in the workplace, workers won’t have a say in these critical issues.

It’s not just the shaping of law that affects workers’ lives, Bonior says. Electing a pro-worker president is crucial because the president appoints federal court judges, Labor Department officials and members of the National Labor Relations Board. At all of these levels, decisions are made that affect workers’ rights, and under the Bush administration, federal court decisions have eroded workers’ rights.

Mary Beth Maxwell, executive director of American Rights at Work, says the next election can create an opportunity for real improvements in workers’ lives, starting with the Employee Free Choice Act.

In today’s economy, we need policies that give workers a fair shake. This economy works for CEOs, but this economy is not working for workers. It’s about giving workers more opportunities in the economy, and giving workers a shot at the American dream.

But the corporate elite is not going to give up power easily. Maxwell points to the newly launched, highly-funded and misleading corporate campaigns against the Employee Free Choice Act.

They’re desperately trying to fight change. They know the same thing we know, that this would empower workers.

The Employee Free Choice Act passed the House last year, and won the support of a majority of senators, but ran up against a filibuster by an anti-worker minority.

Bonior says American Rights at Work is reaching out across the progressive movement to civil rights allies, environmental groups and others to encourage support for pro-worker policies. He stresses that in addition to being able to fight for a better life in the workplace, workers in unions are more likely to vote and get engaged in the political process than nonunion workers.

We can’t have a strong progressive movement without a strong worker movement. Union members get education about the economy and the impact on their lives and families. That makes the difference.

Bonior points to the success of the 2 million-member AFL-CIO community affiliate Working America in helping to bring this kind of education to a wider audience.

More states are in play this year than ever, Bonior says, and working families will make the difference in electing a new president and a pro-worker majority in Congress.

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