IBEW Video, Op-Ed Separate Fact from Fiction on Employee Free Choice

by Seth Michaels, Apr 21, 2009

With millions of dollars being dumped by corporate groups into scare tactics, misleading ads and disinformation against the Employee Free Choice Act, here are some excellent resources that help make the case for why we need this bill to protect workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain.

In a great new video, the Electrical Workers (IBEW) union responds to several of the misconceptions about the Employee Free Choice Act that have been promoted by corporate front groups and the pundits and politicians doing their bidding.

The video raises some of the questions posed by opponents of Employee Free Choice and responds with facts and studies:

• The Employee Free Choice Act would put the choice of majority sign-up or a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election in the hands of workers, not their bosses.

• Majority sign-up isn’t a new invention—it’s a legal and decades-old process that hundreds of thousands of workers have used to form unions. Studies show that the NLRB election process puts workers at risk of coercion far more than the majority sign-up process.
• Nearly 30,000 people were disciplined or fired for pro-union activity in 2007, showing the extent to which current law isn’t protecting workers.
• Many prominent economists say that the Employee Free Choice Act will strengthen the economy and raise standards of living for workers.

Mike Semm, an IBEW member who serves as president of Local 1597 in Grand Island, Neb., cuts through the corporate spin in a recent op-ed in the Grand Island Independent. He notes how the destructive economic pattern of the past decade has left workers behind and corporate executives unaccountable. The value that workers created turned into CEO bonuses and speculative bubbles, while the workers themselves were left with a dwindling share.

Stagnant wages and tightening family budgets have severely restricted the average worker’s buying power. Small businesses across the country are hurting because workers can’t afford to buy the products that they’re producing…as President Obama has said, we won’t be able to rebuild the middle class if working people don’t have the freedom to form and join unions….

Unions and businesses have worked together to set up employee training programs, reduce turnover and improve product quality. Recent studies from the Economic Policy Institute show that these cooperative relationships help local communities to prosper, which in turn helps to stimulate demand for local businesses.

Semm says that we need real economic growth, based on work and wages, to get out of our economic crisis. And for that, we need the Employee Free Choice Act to restore workers’ ability to bargain for a fair share of the prosperity they create.

The IBEW’s new video and recent op-ed column counter the corporate disinformation campaign and make a great case for why we need the Employee Free Choice Act.

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