Human Rights Day, 2008: U.S. Workers Still Lack the Freedom to Form Unions

by Seth Michaels, Dec 10, 2008

The Employee Free Choice Act, a vital bill to restore workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain for a better life, is a top priority for working families in the new Congress. Today, as we commemorate the 60th anniversary of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it’s important to remember how crucial it is to protect the right of workers to form unions to protect fair pay, good benefits and a safe work environment.

Around the country today, union volunteers are marking the anniversary by leafleting worksites and getting the message out about the Employee Free Choice Act. In coming weeks, labor councils around the country hold meetings to spread the word about this critical bill to restore worker power and rebuild the middle class.

The Employee Free Choice Act is under heavy attack from CEOs and Big Business lobbyists. One of the country’s largest employers, McDonald’s, is taking the anti-worker side in the fight over the bill.

Crain’s Chicago Business reveals that in a Nov. 25 memo to franchise owners, McDonald’s USA President Don Thompson stakes out the company’s opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act and asks franchisees to support anti-Employee Free Choice Act politicians. (Sound familiar? That’s because Wal-Mart pulled the same trick with its managers this year.)

Why is McDonald’s trying to block a bill that would restore workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain for a better life? Because it might actually result in workers bargaining for a better life. As Crain’s notes:

With more than 600,000 U.S. restaurant workers, many earning less than $10 an hour, the chain makes an attractive target for union organizers. Unionized employees could demand higher pay and stricter work rules in McDonald’s kitchens.

Apparently, McDonald’s likes the current company-dominated system just fine—it allows them to keep workers in low-paying “McJobs.”

McDonald’s is a member of the National Restaurant Association, a business lobbying group that funds the cunningly misnamed Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, a major corporate front group in the campaign to block the freedom to form unions.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says McDonald’s effort to block the Employee Free Choice Act is an attack on workers and the middle class.

Working people know that the bargaining power they gain through unions for fair wages, better health care, pensions and job security is our nation’s single best tool for creating an economy that works for all—60 million say they’d join a union tomorrow if given the chance. In launching a campaign to defeat the Employee Free Choice Act, McDonald’s has taken direct aim at the customers and communities it serves and is shooting down their best chance at realizing their aspirations for their families and futures.   

Crain’s makes the mistake of relying for its reporting on Rick Berman, a Washington, D.C., lobbyist who has built his career around undermining unions, fighting consumer protections and protecting corporate power. Berman is involved with anti-Employee Free Choice Act front groups, and, without scrutinizing his connections, Crain’s takes for granted Berman’s misleading description of the bill. (It’s a mistake that numerous media outlets are making. The Washington Post relied on Berman as a source for a misleading article on the Employee Free Choice Act yesterday, without mentioning his lobbying activities. Economist Dean Baker called the article “incorrect” on the key facts.)

As Sweeney says, the Employee Free Choice Act is about leveling the playing field and giving workers a stake, and the big corporations who are fighting to block it are benefiting from the imbalance of power.

Corporations like McDonald’s and their CEOs hold all the cards in today’s economy and working families are left to struggle with the economy they leave behind. McDonald’s CEO James Skinner took home over $12.3 million in total compensation last year. If he were paid by the hour, he would make nearly 600 times the less than $10/hour pay of many of McDonald’s 600,000 employees. 

As we remember the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, let’s speak out against corporations like McDonald’s, who are putting corporate power ahead of the freedom to form unions.

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