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African American Baptists Endorse Employee Free Choice |
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The momentum for the Employee Free Choice Act is growing. The latest organization to sign on in support of the bill is the National Baptist Convention of America (NBCA), one of the nation’s largest African American religious groups with 3 million members.
In a letter to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, the Rev. Samuel Tolbert, general secretary of the NBCA, writes:
The (NBCA) will join with you in raising the level of awareness of our leadership and our membership of the importance of workers across the spectrum having the right to form and join a union if they so choose.
I continue to believe that workers have a right to have a voice in the process that determines their wages, hours and conditions of employment.
The union movement is 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 in today’s economic crisis. The Employee Free Choice Act will allow more people to bargain for better wages and working conditions, helping to rebuild our middle class and create an economy that works for all.
AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer William Lucy, who spoke to NBCA’s leadership about the bill at its meeting last month in Houston, says it is important that religious groups speak out about the Employee Free Choice Act.
The freedom to join a union is a basic human right. This is not just an economic issue, it’s a moral issue. What the National Baptist Convention is saying, along with numerous other religious groups, is that it is morally wrong to deny workers a voice in their workplace. At the same time, the Employee Free Choice Act could be a key part of our economic recovery by helping workers receive a good wage for their labor. We need to pass the Employee Free Choice Act because in so many ways it is the right thing to do.
Click here to check out which organizations support the Employee Free Choice Act and here to learn more about the legislation.
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I want to see the list of basic human rights. Who makes up the list anyway? Is it the UN, the Democrats, a religious theology? First you have Obama saying health care is a right and now joining a union is a basic human right. I always thought it was a privilege to join a union just like it is a privilege to have a drivers license.
I’m so glad to have the support of the Baptists. Since Animism is the original human religion do we have their support?
The EFCA will be a very hot topic of debate now that the election is over. Despite what you might read on this blog there are still members of organized labor and others that don’t like the EFCA
Employee Free Choice Act, the right to form a union, without intimidation. What member of organized labor would not want others to enjoy the same benefits and rights that they have?
Unless you are a member who only wants a free ride on the backs of those who fight for you.
My point is that there is a difference between basic human rights and constitutional rights.
Did you know that on 12/04/2000 The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that you do not have a right to vote in a Presidential election?
I don’t believe I stated my position on the EFCA. I am saying that there are union members that I have personally talked to and have read other opinions from pro labor politicians that have some reservations.
I just think it is interesting to have a debate on such a politically incorrect viewpoint. Many will be offended and that is something we have the freedom to be in this country. Others will try to end the debate by calling it hate speech or racist.
Are you a member of organized labor? I don’t think so. I like the way you gloss over basic human rights. Every worker in this country has the right, not only to join a union, but to do so without harassment, intimidation, coercion, and job loss. That is why people like you don’t like card check neutrality. It lessens the amount of time that employers have to intimidate and scare their employees. The employers really do not care whether or not there is a secret ballot election. They like to use the time in between to put these tactics into action. Maybe we should allow them to do this the way they do it in Columbia. A worker who was trying to get better working conditions was mudered. His body was set up outside the workplace to warn the other workers what would happen to them if they didn’t go along witht he status quo. I have no doubt that we have employers in this country who WISH they could do things like this. I certainly don’t believe for a moment that you are a union member.
I am a business representative and an independent thinker so I don’t drink the kool-aid and I ask questions.
I know in Columbia they use para-military forces to intimidate union activists. According to the International Trade Union Confederation 145 union activists were killed worldwide last year, 99 of those were in Columbia.
Some of the most respected Democratic members of Congress — including Reps. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, George Miller and Pete Stark of California, and Barney Frank of Massachusetts — have advised that workers in developing countries such as Mexico and Columbia insist on the secret ballot when voting as to whether or not their workplaces should have a union.
Now it seems to me that if some in our government have this opinion for people who would cast a secret ballot vote with a gun to their head then how does that translate to this country?
Does the third world have more balls than we do or have we become such wimps that we expect the government to grow some balls for the people who want a union?
I know all about employer intimidation first hand and the fact that the NLRB will not address it. It totally sucks and I wonder how we have arrived at this point.
wow, Mr Door, you have really shown yourself this time…
so, for the…unaware, ignorant, uneducated…whatever word you want to call it, the RIGHT to form a union is called the FIRST AMENDMENT!!! and I quote,
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; OR THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO PEACEABLY ASSEMBLE, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
That is where joining/forming a union makes it a RIGHT!
A union is just that - a free assembly of people.
This right of assembly is further affirmed in Article 20 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the right to form/join a union is expressly declared in Article 23. The Declaration was adopted by General Assembly of the UN in December 1948 (and yes, the US voted for it, along with 47 other countries).
school’s over for today.
You got the right answer and that is exactly the position of the Libertarian Party so screw the Democrats. Thanks for the info on the UN I will check it out.
I don’t know how anyone, pro-labor, anti-union, on either side can believe the check card concept is a good idea.
I worked in a Union Environment, it was in place when I joined. I was forced in, with no choice. But that was the way it was. I was intimidated by Union leaders, and ultimately left.
I respect workers right to unionize. I respect employers that run a shop well enough that workers feel they are justly compensated.
But… and here is my issue, if we have worked hard to have the right to vote, in private, for our president, why is a confidential vote not appropriate for an issue as important as this?
Shouldn’t the fight be to ensure that every worker has the opportunity to vote to organize (or not), versus forcing them to do that in public?
I’m curious to know what union you have worked for where the Union leaders were intimidating. If this happened, then you should have reported it to the AFL-CIO. Also, I have never known anyone that was worse off working for a union shop, than not. I worked in education, and I had the option of whether or not I wanted to belong to the union. Our membership was about 50% union, 50% non-union. So I paid union dues, and non-union persons did not. Ironically, our union set up the negotiated contract for EVERYONE. Everyone got the fair wages, the good retirement pensions, that were NOT 401Ks, but real pensions, excellent health plans, for which we paid very little, life insurance, sick days, personal days, in other words probably the best employee package I have ever seen since the days of the auto and steel industries. So you have to understand, if you work for a company that is unionized, whether you wish to pay the dues or not, you will still receive the benefits. I want to add, that if we had 100% union membership in our Board of Education, we would have been able to hire more attorneys and personnel to help in our grievances, and our union would have been in an even better position to speak for ALL the empoyees.