Million-Member Effort for Free Choice Reaches 669,000 and Growing

by James Parks, Sep 9, 2008

The union movement’s nationwide drive to get at least 1 million signatures in support of the Employee Free Choice Act is gaining new supporters each day. Over the past six months, more than 669,000 people have signed postcards to tell the new president and Congress, when they take office in 2009, that working families across America want them to immediately enact the legislation.

The cards will be presented to the new Congress after the November elections in a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol. The legislation would allow workers to freely choose how they want to form a union. (You can show your support for the Employee Free Choice Act by clicking here to sign our online card.)

For those who have signed up through the efforts of the United Steelworkers (USW) Rapid Response Team, the union has found a special way to say  “thank you.” The union is giving away a new Harley-Davidson motorcycle to a lucky USW member who signs a postcard supporting the Employee Free Choice Act.  

The person whose card is drawn will receive his or her choice of a USW-made 2009 Harley-Davidson Fat Boy motorcycle or $16,000 cash. To win, the person whose name is drawn must be an active, retired or associate member of USW and be registered to vote. For more information, USW members should contact their local union. 

USW President Leo Gerard says the Employee Free Choice Act would restore balance to the workplace: 

In surveys, more than half of U.S. workers, nearly 60 million, say they would join a union immediately if they could. But they don’t get that opportunity under the current Wal-Mart mentality global-corporate system.

The political system has been stacked against collective bargaining. Global corporations hire “union busters” to intimidate, harass and fire workers who try to organize unions. Workers are fired in a quarter of the campaigns where workers try to organize unions at private companies. Even when workers successfully form unions, they can’t get a first contract 44 percent of the time because companies refuse to bargain meaningfully.

There is a solution for this problem. It’s called the Employee Free Choice Act.

The AFL-CIO Executive Council voted in March to launch the Million-Member Mobilization. In a statement, the council lays out the urgent need to pass the bill:

America’s workers must regain their bargaining power to maintain and expand the middle class. The American middle class was created by the ability of workers to form unions and bargain collectively after the passage of the Wagner Act in 1935. 

More and more Americans are beginning to understand that collective bargaining can promote broadly shared economic growth and prosperity, higher wages, better jobs, better and more extensive health care coverage, retirement security and respect for workers on the job.

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