Rally Today for Employee Free Choice

by Seth Michaels, Feb 4, 2009

Throughout the past year, supporters of the freedom to form unions and bargain have carried out a national campaign to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. Today, thousands of workers will come to Washington, D.C., to deliver thousands of petitions demanding Congress pass the Employee Free Choice Act and make the economy work for everyone.

The union movement’s Million Member Mobilization has been a great success, collecting 1.5 million signatures and showing broad public support for the freedom to form unions and bargain for a better life. You can see some of the cards representing the broad coalition of union members and nonunion members here. (To add your name to the petition to support Employee Free Choice, click here.)

The fight to pass the Employee Free Choice Act kicks off with a rally at 12:30 p.m. in the upper Senate park outside the U.S. Capitol. Workers from across the nation who were intimidated and harassed during their attempt to form a union will speak about what’s wrong with our current system and why the Employee Free Choice Act is necessary to help fix it. These workers are just a few of the thousands of workers who are coerced or even terminated every year for trying to exercise their basic freedom to form a union and bargain.

In addition to workers who have faced corporate coercion in their attempt to form a union, the rally will feature Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), two sponsors of the Employee Free Choice Act. United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard also will speak. After the rally, workers will visit their members of Congress to speak directly about the importance of fixing our broken system and restoring the freedom to form unions. The voices of ordinary workers are essential to counterbalance the multimillion dollar disinformation campaign coming from corporations and their shady front groups.

Today,  the efforts of more than a million workers around  will pay off, as members of Congress will get to see the real people whose lives are affected and the millions of signed cards representing a grassroots movement for the Employee Free Choice Act.

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