Employee Free Choice Act: Op-Ed Highlights

by Seth Michaels, Sep 18, 2009

Here are two great recent op-eds on the case for the Employee Free Choice Act.

In The Hill, United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard remembers the late Crystal Lee Sutton, the inspiration for the film “Norma Rae” who passed away last weekend. Sutton’s story—attempting to form a union and bargain for a better life but facing harassment and illegal firing—shows why we need the Employee Free Choice Act, Gerard says. In particular, he notes, we must remember how, after the great personal sacrifice and victory by Sutton and her co-workers, they were still denied the ability to bargain for a fair contract:

The Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU) won the right to represent the workers. That’s what people remember from the film. A great victory. What they don’t know is that J.P. Stevens officials didn’t sign a labor contract with the union until a decade later.

That’s why the Employee Free Choice Act must pass. Not only do companies threaten, harass and illegally fire workers like Sutton who try to form unions, but even when workers finally do win union representation, corporations wrongly hold up negotiations to deny workers their first labor contract—as J. P. Stevens did.

In the Indianapolis Star, Indiana State AFL-CIO President Ken Zeller sorts out the myths and facts of the Employee Free Choice Act, cutting through disinformation and explaining why we need labor law reform:

As long as workers are denied a seat at the bargaining table, corporate greed will continue to run roughshod over our economy. The Employee Free Choice Act will give workers the power to bring a measure of democracy back to the workplace.

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