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Across the Country, Unions Are Good for Workers, the Economy
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As economic uncertainty continues, the incoming administration and Congress will be tasked not only with restoring the economy in the short term, but also with making it sustainable in the long term. That means making sure working families around the nantion have the benefits, wages and lasting economic security that comes with the freedom to form unions and bargain.
New reports by the Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAPAF) show that state economies benefit from giving working families the power in the workplace and the wages, benefits and job security that come with the freedom to form a union.
CAPAF says:
Unions paved the way to the middle class for millions of workers and pioneered benefits such as paid health care and pensions along the way. Even today, union workers earn significantly more on average than their non-union counterparts, and union employers are more likely to provide benefits. And non-union workers—particularly in highly unionized industries—receive financial benefits from employers who increase wages to match what unions would win in order to avoid unionization.
CAPAF has reports examining what the effect of broader access to unions and bargaining would be in California, Louisiana, Maine, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
As CAPAF notes, the decline in union membership has corresponded to a decline in the share of economic growth that goes to working families. That means families are less able to afford housing and consumer goods and less likely to have health care coverage and retirement security. The weaknesses in our economy can be attributed to the failure to broadly share prosperity. To make the economy work for everyone, we need to pass the Employee Free Choice Act and restore the freedom to form unions and bargain with employers.
Workers in states like California, Louisiana, Maine, Pennsylvania and Virginia will benefit from the Employee Free Choice Act. It needs to be at the top of the agenda for the next Congress.
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5 Comments
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We need the Employee Free Choice Act here in Kentucky! Here there is no such thing as freedom to choose a union! The employers repeatedly break the law which provides remedies too weak to make them stop.
An NLRB judge just ruled on December 12, 2008, that Norton Audubon Hospital once again broke the law.
The current violations have resulted in a postponement of a March 2008 election which was to be a rerun of a 1994 election during which the violations of nurses’ rights were so intense that a judge ordered the hospital to bargain with the Nurses Professional Organization (NPO).
That bargaining order was later converted to a new election that has not been held for 14 years because of ongoing violations of the law.
Norton Healthcare took over the former Columbia/HCA Hospitals in Louisville in 1998. Since that time Norton Healthcare has been found guilty of hallmark violations of the law including unlawful firing and disciplining of nurses, unlawful banning of union literature, unlawful interrogation, unlawful interference with freedom to speak, plus more.
Norton Healthcare has paid over $570,000 to nurses in NLRB settlements, in addition to the $270,000 paid by Columbia/HCA for its violations.
Everyone should push for the Employee Free Choice Act. It’s in the interest of the entire country!
Kay Tillow
nursenpo@aol.com
Employee Free Choice Act offers no “free choice” at all. The concept of union bosses (aka “fat cats”) observing while employees vote on unionization is a threat to the fabric of a free market economy and democratic system of government. “Ambulatory” pickets and threats to the safety of an employee and his or her family for voting in opposition to unionization is the ultimate result of passage of this insidious Act.
Our global competitiveness will continue to suffer and innovation will further be stifled given the “preservation of status quo” sentiment that runs deep in the veins of union leadership if unions discontinue their downward trend in membership. Unions protect the sub-performance and promote mediocrity (e.g. the teacher’s union). Performance should be rewarded, not deterred.
Unfortunately corporations have been unwilling to give much needed raises to the rank and file and are not going to do so voluntarily. If company were always fair and employees were never cheated on their pay checks, received adequate vacation time off, sick time, personal time, decent pensions and health care there wouldn’t be any need for unions. But now, more than ever, unions are destined to become stronger and more powerful than they have ever been.
Why? The vast majoritiy of work has been sent to Mexico and China, Viet Nam, Shri lanka, Turkey and anywhere else impoverished people will work for free. Take Maytag appliance as one example. Since they left Iowa and moved production to Mexico, not only are the jobs lost and the tax base destroyed but the appliances actually cost more money than when they were union made right here in the United States! The cars and trucks being produced in Mexico by GM, Chrysler and Ford aren’t one cent cheaper than those made here.
This whole idea of “free trade” is really just a scam so a hand full at the top can have it all, the real “fat cats.”
The shoes you find these days made of plastic that feels like leather. Plastic soles glued on and made in China for pennies and resold for fifty to seventy five dollars. You used to buy Florsheim shoes for the same price. Solid fine leather with hand sewn leather soles made in St. Louis by proud union members at Brown shoe.
U.S. city after U.S. city that were once vibrant now look like ghost towns. Shuttered mills and empty ware houses with rusting steel and weedy over growth with family after family on relief unable to find work. Is this the vision for America we want our grand children to inherit?
Too many good paying jobs have been lost. Toyota is about to post it’s first loss ever. Honda sales are way down also. Home construction is all but halted.
Why? Too many former members of the middle class are now broke! The Employee Free Choice Act will help to restore an economy that has nearly been destroyed through the Bush years of trickle down economics that failed to trickle down.
Watching Fox News and listening to Right Wing talk radio creates some serious problems dealing with reality. The study is factual based and not opinion. “cmiles” repeats some serious disinformation about unions, the global economy and the Employee Free Choice Act.
The Employee Free Choice Act promotes more workplace democracy not less. The current system is frankly rigged against workers exercising their voting rights without employer intimidation and coercion. Employer routinely break the already lax laws because the penalties are extremely weak.
The Employee Free Choice Act does not really go far enough but is a great first step. Employers who interfere in the union voting process should face mandatory jail time. The right to unionize should be a federally guaranteed, Constitutionally protected civil right.
Union bosses is a BS term. We elect our union leadership. We do not elect our bosses. Only employers are bosses.
Employers are the ones who routinely threaten workers or resort to violent intimidation to stop union drives. It is very rare to non-existent for union personnel to be involved in these types of actions. This is intentional disinformation based on outright lies.
Unionization is not a serious obstacle to global competitiveness. Lack of universal government provided healthcare is a much more serious problem in terms og international trade.
Teacher’s unions do not promote “mediocrity.” This is an outright lie and pure Corporate, Right Wing BS.
Unions do not promote sub-performance. American productivity is far greater in unionized operations than in non-union ones since employees have a much greater interest in seeing them prosper. Unionized UPS is much more profitable than Federal Express. In manufacturing, American productivity has been rising rapidly although wages have not. In the building trades, union construction workers have much better skill sets, training, performance and safety records than non-union workers.
It isn’t just wages involved, it is safe and humane working conditions and the ability to get time off when needed for family or other emergencies. It is the right to fight back against unfair treatment without losing your job. It is the right to speak up without being fired. It stops the “united we stand, divided they fall” attitude by corporate America against workers.
Keep up the good work exposing the corporate dirty tricks against the EFCA; the lies, the threats, the hiding behind fake “union-friendly” organizations to influence the media against the EFCA. It will only get worse as the corporate bullies get more desperate to keep it from passing…..