Employee Free Choice Web Roundup

by Seth Michaels, May 1, 2009

One way to celebrate May Day is to catch up on recent coverage of the Employee Free Choice Act, so here’s a roundup of news, resources and blog posts from the week about the fight to ensure workers have the freedom to form unions without harassment and intimidation from managers.

*  In the Huffington Post, the AFL-CIO’s Stewart Acuff looks at Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter’s decision to leave the Republican Party and says the union movement will be “watching closely” to see how Specter votes on issues critical to working people. Acuff says the Specter switch is a step in the right direction for the Employee Free Choice Act:

Arlen Specter’s decision to become a Democrat makes the fight for the Employee Free Choice Act much more fluid and passage much more likely.

The labor movement will re-double our already overwhelming efforts in Pennsylvania to convince the Senator to once again support the bill that he was a co-sponsor of.

*  Speaking of Specter, here’s what Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President Bill George had to say about his party switch:

We will encourage Sen. Specter to reconsider his decision on the Employee Free Choice Act and the Freedom to Organize without fear and intimidation by corporations and their hired union busters. We do not evaluate candidates based upon party affiliations. Our evaluations are based upon the voting records and positions of candidates on issues that matter most to working Pennsylvanians.

*  Calling it a “crucial measure” for workplace fairness and the economy, Katherine Stone, a professor at the University of California-Los Angeles School of Law, offers her take on some of the key questions about the Employee Free Choice Act.

*  Ed Kilgore neatly dismembers the fact-free theories of Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), who claims Specter’s defection shows unions are bad and the Republican Party is healthy.

*  The fine folks at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) have released a series of one-page reports summarizing the latest research on what unions mean for workers all around the country.

*  Michigan State AFL-CIO President Mark Gaffney speaks about the economic crisis, the auto industry and the need for the Employee Free Choice Act in an interview with the Oakland Business Review.

*  At the Huffington Post, Art Levine looks at how local media coverage—unlike the national press—is getting past the corporate spin in covering the grassroots campaign for Employee Free Choice.

*  The National Center for Lesbian Rights offers support for the Employee Free Choice, saying it’s critical to give families the ability to join the middle class.

*  And pollster Mark Mellman takes to The Hill to look at the positive public attitudes toward the freedom to form unions.

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