A Renewed Covenant with America: The Employee Free Choice Act

California interfaith leaders in Los Angeles gathered this week to demonstrate their support for the Employee Free Choice Act.

Steve Smith, director of communications at the California Labor Federation, describes one of many recent actions in California and around the country in support of the Employee Free Choice Act.

A broad coalition of California interfaith leaders gathered at a West Los Angeles Wal-Mart this week to demand an end to the Wal-Martization of America and to support a renewed covenant with America’s workers through passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. Nationwide, dozens of faith groups have joined with environmental, community and academic organizations in support of the legislation, which would level the playing field for workers seeking to form unions.

Speakers, including renowned labor historian Nelson Lichtenstein, discussed the fundamental flaws in our corporate-dominated economy epitomized by Wal-Mart, which raked in more than $13 billion in profits last year while refusing to pay many of its own employees a living wage or provide basic necessities like health care. Wal-Mart also is recognized as the most virulently anti-union corporation in the nation and is spending millions of dollars to try and defeat the Employee Free Choice Act.

Bishop Mary Anne Swenson of the United Methodist Church, speaking to dozens of activists, set the tone:

For too long, corporations like Wal-Mart have flourished while their workers have languished in poverty without a voice in the workplace. Together we can change that. We can restore the voice and the rights of workers and move them to a shared prosperity. We must urge our elected officials to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

Lichtenstein, author of the new book, Wal-Mart: The Face of Twenty-First-Century Capitalism, shared case studies from his research that show just how far Wal-Mart will go to deny workers from having the freedom to bargain collectively for better wages and benefits. Lichtenstein said the Employee Free Choice Act is a critical reform that would make the system to join a union more fair and democratic.

According to Human Rights Watch, when the U.S. State Department evaluates an election in places like Zimbabwe, Nigeria, or the Ukraine, outside observers look not just at the ballot-box on election day, but on the entire run-up to the vote: If there is an atmosphere of intimidation, a government monopoly on the news, threats of job loss and dislocation, then the U.S. government declares the election a sham at best, a tactic in the continued undemocratic governance of that country. When these same standards are applied to companies like Wal-Mart, it becomes obvious that as currently constituted, our labor laws fail to provide for free and fair election choice by American workers.

The Employee Free Choice Act will be a step in making it possible for workers to decide their right whether to form a union or not without intimidation and without having a company executive threatening to fire, demote or harass them should the vote go against management’s wishes.

The event was the latest in many California grassroots actions in support of the Employee Free Choice Act. Since the bill was introduced in Congress in March, more than 30,000 Californians have sent hand-written letters to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, urging her to support the Employee Free Choice. Next week, activists across the state will hold 24-hour vigils under the theme “Now is the time for Employee Free Choice.”

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