Voters Reject Corporate Lies About Employee Free Choice

by James Parks, Nov 10, 2008

Voters last Tuesday soundly rejected the misleading anti-union corporate campaign opposing the Employee Free Choice Act and overwhelmingly backed candidates who support working families.

A poll by Peter D. Hart Research Associates commissioned by the workers’ rights advocacy group American Rights at Work shows that anti-union advertising was among the least important factors in determining voters’ choices for U.S. Senate and that they continue to support making it easier for workers to join unions. 

Says American Rights at Work Chair David Bonior: 

No matter how hard corporate interests tried to mislead voters, it just didn’t work. State by state, millions were spent, but the fact remains, the Employee Free Choice Act never became the wedge issue corporate interests sought. 

Six newly elected senators expressed strong support for the bill, despite the millions of dollars the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the business community spent to try and defeat them. The new senators—Rep. Mark Udall of Colorado, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Rep. Tom Udall of New Mexico, Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Mark Warner of Virginia and Jeff Merkley of Oregon—could play a key role in passing the legislation.

The bill did not come to the Senate floor last year after senators failed by nine votes to invoke cloture. The atmosphere also is different at the White House. While President Bush had promised to veto the bill, President-elect Barack Obama co-sponsored the bill in the Senate and has said he will work to pass the bill once he takes office.   

Here are the main findings of the poll:

• Nearly two-thirds (60 percent) of voters believe it is important to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, and nearly one-third (31 percent) of voters strongly believe it should be a priority for Congress.

• When told about proposed legislation in Congress that would “make it easier for workers to form unions by allowing employees to be represented by a union when a majority of their co-workers sign cards saying they want to join that union,” voters favor the Employee Free Choice Act by nearly two to one (55 percent favor; 28 percent oppose).

• Voters “are more than twice as likely to say big corporations having too much power (50 percent) create a bigger problem for people like them than big labor unions having too much power (23 percent).”

• Overall, 55 percent of voters in these states say they approve of labor unions, compared with just 27 percent who say they disapprove.

Click here to read a summary of the poll.

Bonior puts it this way: 

We have only seen the beginning of the fight to restore workers’ rights in this country as we can expect more sound and fury from opponents of this bill. But voters have clearly spoken. In our current economic climate, the American public is hungry for measures to strengthen the middle class, and our new Congress should heed this call and make it a priority to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. 

Workers are supporting the Employee Free Choice Act because it gives working people the freedom to make their own decision about whether and how to form a union. Working people are struggling to make ends meet and the Employee Free Choice Act will allow more people to bargain for better wages and working conditions—which in turn helps rebuild our middle class and create an economy that works for all.

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