Momentum for Employee Free Choice Keeps Growing

by James Parks, Sep 26, 2008

The momentum for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act is growing every day as more and more elected officials and political candidates sign on in support of the bill. They recognize that having a union card is the best way to build the middle class and to restore balance to the workplace. 

In Richmond, Va., some 21 candidates for mayor and city council already have signed cards calling on their representatives to vote for the bill. If enacted, the Employee Free Choice Act would allow workers to freely decide how they want to choose a union—a decision now in the hands of the employer.  

Workers have made passage of the Employee Free Choice Act a key priority in the upcoming elections. More than 800,000 workers have signed postcards and petitions calling on the new Congress and president to enact the legislation when they take office in 2009. (You can show your support for the Employee Free Choice Act by clicking here to sign our online card.)  

Despite a heavily funded corporate campaign attacking them for supporting the bill, congressional candidates are coming forward to fight for employee free choice. Rep. Steve Kagen (D-Wis.) is the latest to openly back the bill. (See video.) An original co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act, Kagen says: 

(The Employee Free Choice Act) provides the opportunity for every working man and woman in America to form an effective union. And we need effective unions to guarantee our quality of life. 

In their attack ads, corporate front groups falsely claim the Employee Free Choice Act would take away workers’ right to a private ballot to determine if they want a union. New research by the workers’ rights group American Rights at Work shows that many employers are taking advantage of U.S. labor laws intended to protect workers’ rights to form unions. Instead, American Rights at Work’s research shows “aggressive misconduct from management widely prevents workers from exercising their choice.”  

American Rights at Work’s research also confirms that in the current company-dominated system when workers file a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to hold an election, employers often try to prevent the vote from ever taking place. In four out of 10 cases, workers who ask for an NLRB-supervised election never get a chance to vote. In cases that actually reach an election, nearly half are spoiled by employers engaging in illegal activity, according to American Rights at Work. Specifically, in 46 percent of elections, employers interfere with the NLRB-supervised election process by firing pro-union employees, cutting back on workers’ hours, making groundless demotions and using other intimidating tactics. 

That’s why many workers support the majority sign-up system to choose a union. One provision of the Employee Free Choice Act would require employers to recognize a union if a majority of workers indicate their choice of a union by signing union cards. Currently, the employer can ignore the employees’ choice and demand an NLRB election.  

In a second study, American Rights at Work found that, since 2003, more than half a million Americans formed unions through a majority sign-up. They include 64,000 hotel and casino workers, 46,000 home care providers,11,000 UPS Freight workers and 8,000 farm workers jointly employed by Mount Olive Pickle Co. and the North Carolina Growers Association. In fact, the process has worked so well there are now 22 laws in 12 states that grant certain public and private employees the right to form unions through the majority sign-up process. Click here to read the two studies. 

Passage of the Employee Free Choice Act may be the biggest economic reform since the New Deal in the 1930s, says Mark Weisbrot. Writing on AlterNet, he says passing the bill would help raise the wages, benefits and working conditions of most workers. Read Weisbrot’s full column here.      

One of the most important problems that our economy has faced for the last 30 years has been stagnating real wages. This is amazing, when we consider that productivity—the amount that workers produce per hour—increased quite substantially over the period. One important reason for this great leap backwards is that the rights of workers to organize and bargain collectively have been sharply curtailed over the last three decades. 

(The Employee Free Choice Act) would probably change Americans’ lives more than any legislation since the New Deal brought us Social Security. The political influence of millions of new union members would also bring us closer to such basic reforms as universal health care. It’s all long overdue. 

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