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Generations Must Stand United for Employee Free Choice Act |
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Barbara J. Easterling was elected president of the Alliance for Retired Americans in February. She was previously the secretary-treasurer of the Communications Workers of America. For more information, visit www.retiredamericans.org or call 1-888-633-4435.
Our nation’s economic crisis is affecting nearly everyone. Unless you are getting one of those big Wall Street bonuses, you are probably struggling to pay your bills, keep your home, or afford to see a doctor or fill a prescription. There is no longer any doubt that the fundamentals of our economy are broken.
One way out of this mess—and a way to help both current and future retirees—is for Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.
The Employee Free Choice Act recognizes that our middle class is in trouble because more and more, big corporations hold all the cards. As they lavish their CEOs with bonuses and golden parachutes, they slash jobs and cut all the wrong corners on customer service and safety. They break their promises to workers and retirees, leaving millions without health care and retirement plans.
But standing up for yourself by forming a union hasn’t been easy. One in five workers trying to form a union is fired. Decades of “hear no evil, see no evil” enforcement of labor laws has given management the green light to harass and intimidate anyone who tries to exercise their rights on the job. Too often federal officials fail to protect law-abiding employees and, instead, act like the lookout man at a bank robbery.
Ever since I joined a union—on my very first day as a telephone operator in Akron, Ohio—I have seen firsthand how collective bargaining is the best hope workers have for good jobs and good wages. Now, as president of the Alliance for Retired Americans, I see that as middle-class jobs disappear, so does the prospect of a safe and secure retirement. Did you know that workers in a union are nearly three times more likely to have pensions and five times more likely to have health insurance benefits? A union contract helps you long past when your working days are done.
Most of my generation is no longer in the workforce. But we worry about our younger friends and family who struggle to either find a job or hang onto the one they have. If things stay as they are, will they ever be able to retire?
In times this tough, we must all stand together. All of us must educate our neighbors—and particularly our lawmakers—about how our right to collectively bargain is broken. Only through restoring fairness to our labor laws can we restore our nation’s middle class to the greatness that it once was.
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My Dad was union all his working life. Mom now has a pension and health insurance. Monsanto has cut a lot away from the contracts we negotiated when i was growing up but Mom can still get along now that he has passed. My sister has a permanent disability from Monsanto and gets enough money to get along in these tough times.
I never had a union. Now I work as a housekeeper with no short term disability, health insurance that takes 23% of my monthly gross income. I work “at will”. Since I am pro-union I am followed around the building, I’m never allowed to sit with co-workers without a supervisors present. My work is gone over with a fine toothed comb: I’ve been written up for a tiny piece of paper towelthat ripped off while cleaning behind a kitchen faucet. I have caught 2 staph infections, 1 in my nose and 1 in my eye. The eye infection took 2 antibiotics to clear it up. And, the management claims none of the residents have C-Dif or MERSA and I caught the infections outside of work. I was written up for being “hysterical” when I suspected I had another infection in my nose.
We need one big union. Retirees please don’t believe that you’re “all used up” we are all in this together. I know a long disappointing labor struggle is tiring you out–but we need you! You remember what a union can do when workers speak with one voice. Please start writing more in the papers. Younger workers want to hear from you—We will listen to you—You are our mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, Nana’s and Gramp. Give us one more try: this time we will listen. Mary
Hi Mary -
I’m a 68 year old retired longshoreman. We pensioners are very active and involved. “We may have retired from the job, but we’ll never retire from the union.”
The Employee Free Choice Act must become law, but now some Democrats are siding with anti-labor corporations who oppose it.
Senator Blanche Lincoln (D - Arkansas): ” the Employee Free Choice Act isn’t necessary”.
Of course not, after all, non-union Arkansas is a bastion of prosperity!
Well, actually, it isn’t. It’s poverty-stricken and features ultra low wages. But guess who likes low wages? Wal-Mart. And guess who loves Wal-Mart? Arkansas politicians like Blanche Lincoln.
The Center for Responsive Politics shows that Sen. Lincoln has indeed been a direct beneficiary of Wal-Mart’s political hand-outs, with donors associated with the company giving Lincoln over $35,800 in her career.
Lincoln has also received $44,000 from Tyson Foods, the poultry giant with its own checkered record of worker abuses and hostility to unions.
What is even more egregious is that Sen. Lincoln supports laws that help Wal-Mart and other anti-labor “big box” stores get cheap, unsafe junk from China and elsewhere. And in the process, the jobs of U.S. workers are being transferred offshore to slave-labor environs.
Workers in Arkansas could use more unions. Arkansas has the 5th-highest rate of poverty in the country. The state’s median income ranks 48th in the nation; only Mississippi and New Mexico are lower. Per capita income ranks 48th in the nation.
Nationally, the “union advantage” that results from having a union is about a 12% boost in wage levels. What Arkansas worker wouldn’t want that extra 12%?
In addition, over 80% of union workers have employer-provided health care, as compared to less than 50% for non-union workers.
It should not surprise anyone to learn that Sen. Lincoln is one of the “Blue Dog Democrats” who dare call themselves “moderates”. That’s laughable. Today’s “moderate” is yesterday’s Goldwater Republican.
Some may argue that labor needs Democrats to control Congress, and labor just needs to suck it up…our time will come. We’re promised pie in the sky when we die.
Let’s put the shoe on the other foot. Democrats need labor to win. (You can put a great big period there. That reality is indisputable.)
Labor advocates for all workers. Union people earn above the minimum wage, yet labor continues to push for increases in the minimum wage. When labor calls for laws requiring workplaces to be safe, it means all workplaces for everyone. When labor supports social programs intended to assist people in need, it means all people in need. When labor pushes legislation to extend access to health care for working class families, it means all working class families. When labor demands continued funding for Social Security and Medicare, it means for everyone. When labor calls for support for public education, it is advocating for children from both union and non-union households.
As the old saying goes, if you like your weekends off, thank organized labor.
During the election cycle Democrats said the EFCA was high on their legislative agenda. Now, however, labor is hearing a different tune. Reasons for Congressional retreat on the EFCA are nearly as numerous as the number of anti-EFCA corporate donors who are throwing money at Congress.
If the EFCA goes down, so will labor’s support for Democrats. Labor won’t sidle up to the anti-worker GOP, but neither will its ranks and file continue to support Democrats who view labor as relevant only around election time.
Write to your Members of Congress. Write to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Write to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Write to President Obama. Tell them if Democrats fail to pass the EFCA, working men and women are going to pass on Democrats.