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Employee Free Choice on the Move |
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Thanks to a strong pro-worker majority in Congress, the support of President Obama and a unified movement of union members and grassroots allies, the Employee Free Choice Act is closer to becoming a reality than ever.
Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz is the latest to throw his support behind the bill. Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia University, was one of 38 leading American economists who endorsed the bill last week.
Annie Hill, CWA executive vice president, says:
If we want to turn around our economy, if we want to counteract some of the worst income inequality our nation has seen, Employee Free Choice is the way to do it. Despite unsourced rumors in the press, we are confident that Senate Democrats, led by Harry Reid, are going to pass the Employee Free Choice Act and make real bargaining rights a reality for millions of American workers.
With waves of misconceptions coming from the Chamber of Commerce and corporate front groups, disseminated by reflexively anti-union pundits like Mickey Kaus, and trickling into the language and themes of credulous journalists, it’s important to cut through the spin and talk about what the Employee Free Choice Act actually does.
Last weekend, Kaus attended the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and apparently was quite taken with Richard Epstein, a management lawyer and fellow at the far-right Hoover Institute who’s built a one-man industry around claiming the Employee Free Choice Act is unconstitutional. (University of California-Berkeley labor history professor David Brody rebuts Epstein’s distortions here.)
Taking Epstein at his word, Kaus wrote a long-winded blog making many erroneous assertions based on nothing but Epstein’s word. Kaus touts these scary themes, but neglects to mention:
- The right of workers to seek contract arbitration under the Employee Free Choice Act is meant to provide an incentive for companies to bargain in good faith. It would not affect all, or even most, employers—only those who fail to agree on a contract.
- Not only do many successful U.S. companies thrive with unions, but the wage, health care and pension improvement for union members help lift standards of living across the economy. Many of America’s top economists agree that wider access to collective bargaining will be a help, not a hindrance, to the economy.
- The exemptions for small businesses that already exist under the National Labor Relations Act would remain in place under the Employee Free Choice Act.
Kaus seems to be taking the word of corporate front groups whose sudden concern for workers’ rights is a cover for panic about the legislation and its ability to ensure that workers can bargain for a fair share of the prosperity they create.
Despite the flood of careless misinformation and intentional falsehoods about the freedom of workers to form unions, the Employee Free Choice Act has earned broad support and is likely to be passed by Congress and signed into law by Obama. The corporate hacks and anti-union groups are spending millions (an estimated $72 million in 2008 alone, reports The Hill) in a losing battle against the bill.
For more information on what you can do to push back on the disinformation campaign against the Employee Free Choice Act, click here.
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Mr. Vice Pres: Don’t Forget to Tell The Labor Bosses about the Employee Free Choice Act …and You Know That The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace Polls are Nothing but a Big SCAM
The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace and their multi-million dollar public relations firm Navigators Global Continue to Lie and spread disinformation about the Employee Free Choice Act. Here is their New Press Release Below:
Mr. Vice President: 74% of Rank and File Union Members Oppose Card Check; Don’t Forget About Them When You Address The AFL-CIO Labor Bosses
http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/03-03-2009/0004982475&EDATE=
New Poll by The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace is Nothing but a Big SCAM
http://miami.indymedia.org/news/2009/02/12681.php
the employee free choice act is our government finally listening to working people.but even with the passage of this bill, we still need to ORGANIZE!!!!. just because aa bill becomes law we cannot let up on educating workers to their rights. also the federal government MUST enforce the laws that are on the books now. and make states enforce the laws both federal and state that protect the right to organize and for union officials to be allowed to thir jobs not the way they twist laws in such places as N.Y.C. and south carolina.
Employee Free Choice Act: The Rats are Coming Out of The Woodwork
Labor Relations Institute Offers $10,000 Reward Exposing a key flaw of the Employee Free Choice Act
Tulsa, OK (PRWEB) March 4, 2009 — Exposing a key flaw of the Employee Free Choice Act, the Labor Relations Institute is offering a $10,000 reward to the first Federal arbitrator who can show they have settled a first contract between a union and a private-sector employer in less than 90 days.
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/03/prweb2201002.htm
What the Labor Relations Institute (LRI) has FAILED to Mention is THE FACT that Federal Arbitrators are NEVER Called to assist in the First 90 Days because the Union tries to Bargain in good Faith.
Even if an Employer from the get-go FAILS to Bargain in Good Faith by the Time a Federal Arbitrator is called in and Management finds a date to sit down and negotiate (Stall Tactics and Delays) the 90 day period would elapse. I Guess LRI FAILED to Mention That in Their Press Release!
Labor Relations Institute (LRI) since you like to gamble I Challenge YOU to Put up a $10,000 Reward for Every Worker Who has been FIRED in the Last six months (6) during the First 42 Days of A Union Campaign. PUT YOUR MONEY Where YOUR Mouth Is Labor Relations Institute LRI !
Facts about the Labor Relations Institute Inc They Don’t Want YOU to Know. They are UNION BUSTERS
http://www.lrionline.com/
The symptoms/tactics that an employer is determined to get rid of the union by the use of union busters include:
Firing and disciplining key union activists
Harassing and intimidating the rank and- file around minor issues
Cancellation and delays at the bargaining table
Constant roadblocks and massive demands for concessions in bargaining
Use of constant scare tactics and threats
Luring employees into toothless power sharing schemes
Unilaterally instituting new employee policies
For more information on Employer FEAR, Coercion and Intimidation Union Busting Tactics Press Below
http://efcanow.blogspot.com/2009/02/just-say-no-to-employee-free-choice-act.html
For More Information on EFCA please visit our websites and blog
http://www.employeefreechoiceactnow.org
http://efcanow.blogspot.com/
http://efcaunionbustingclub.blogspot.com/
http://www.FreeChoiceActNow.Org
http://www.LaborUnionResources.Org
The important thing to remember is that the Employee Free Choice Act is just for new organizing.
Let the workers decide if they want a secret-ballot or majority sign-up via cards.
All other votes that union members take at their membership meetings, elections for officers and collective bargaining ratification won’t be affected.