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Obama Reaffirms Support for Employee Free Choice Act |
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In an Oval Office interview with major newspapers yesterday, President Barack Obama reaffirmed his strong support for the freedom to form unions and bargain.
The Detroit Free Press and the Philadelphia Inquirer were among the papers that got a chance to talk to Obama about the challenges facing our economy, and Obama once again offered his support for the Employee Free Choice Act.
According to the Inquirer, Obama discounted the corporate community’s argument that workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain would be bad for the economy. The president said that, indeed, workers’ freedom to bargain was good for the long-term health of the economy.
I don’t buy the argument that providing workers with collective bargaining rights somehow weakens the economy or worsens the business environment. If you’ve got workers who have decent pay and benefits, they’re also customers for business.
The Inquirer also reports that Obama does not want to delay passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. This echoes a Jan. 30 statement by Vice President Joe Biden, who heads the White House’s task force on working families. Biden told CNBC the administration hopes Congress passes the Employee Free Choice Act this year. Both Obama and Biden were co-sponsors of the legislation in the Senate.
In his announcement of the task force Jan. 30, Obama made it clear he sees unions as essential to a strong economy.
We need to level the playing field for workers and the unions that represent their interests, because we know that you cannot have a strong middle class without a strong labor movement. When workers are prospering, they buy products that make businesses prosper.
The Employee Free Choice Act is critical to the nation’s economic recovery, a point made by numerous analysts including former Labor Secretary Robert Reich. Speaking in Florida yesterday, Reich said the bill would open the door for workers to bargain for health care, pensions and fair wages, restoring their economic security and reversing the wage stagnation that has contributed to a weak economy.
Obama and experts agree: Quick passage of the Employee Free Choice Act will improve the economy for working families.
5 Comments
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Pres. Obama is the greatest!
We have not had a president to be as friendly to labor since John F. Kennedy!
I voted for Obama as did 99% of my family and friends! To see him take such a progressive position causes my eyes to swell and shed tears with pride!
I work for a non-union healthcare facility and we are anxiously awaiting the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act! My co-workers along with workers across the nation need and deserve the right to organize for on the job justice! Si Se Puede!
As promising as the current administration is, even Pres. Obama knows that there are still many enemies of labor plotting to defeat EFCA. We can’t rest on our laurels—we need to be ready for every challenge, every roadblock, that will impede our progress towards a more fair and balanced opportunity for all workers to join or form unions.
It is going to take a lot of hard work and dedication to make this happen. Let’s all get behind Pres. Obama and help him to get the Employee Free Choice enacted into law!
It is critical for organized labor to push hard for single payer health care. As long as American Companies are saddled with the cost of health care, they will never have a level playing field with the rest of the world. It would be so much better for workers and Unions to not have to bargin for health care every contract. The companies would be in a much better position to increase wages without this health care anchor hanging around their necks. It is way past time for the United States to have the same things that our trading partners have to be able to compete with the rest of the world.
I agree. With health care a ‘given’. for all Americans, labor negotiations could focus on living wages, as well as other benefits. Everyone wins in this situation! Good point.