As Momentum Builds, Workers Speak Out on Employee Free Choice
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| Wisconsin health care workers deliver thousands of postcards in support of Employee Free Choice to Sen. Herb Kohl. |
With momentum building for the Employee Free Choice Act, workers across the country are taking the lead in the fight–speaking out at town hall meetings and rallies and asking their senators to pass this critical bill and make the economy work for everyone.
Here are a few of the ways workers are making a difference:
Ken Bruner, a Vietnam veteran, helicopter pilot and the president of Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU) Local 107, spoke at a roundtable about the Employee Free Choice Act in Louisiana last week and said the freedom to form unions can benefit workers and businesses alike.
Former NLRB Examiner: We Need Employee Free Choice
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Ask Shannon Hilt, who’s seen our broken system for forming unions firsthand, and she’ll tell you that there’s no question: Workers need the Employee Free Choice Act.
Hilt spent three years as a field examiner for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), overseeing the elections process and investigating unfair practices. She says the system we have now, one in which companies, not workers, have all the power, isn’t free, it isn’t fair and doesn’t protect workers.
Writing in the Boulder, Colo., Daily Camera, Hilt explains how her years of experience as an NLRB field examiner have convinced her that we need fundamental labor law reform that gives workers, not their bosses, the ability to decide how they form a union and bargain. Here’s how Hilt describes the way union elections happen now:
Through the process of holding union elections, I observed that employees were often intimidated and harassed before the election took place. The company has unfettered access to employees before the union election takes place and oftentimes they use that access to hold mandatory meetings where they discourage their employees from voting for a union in illegal ways.
Lots of Action in Lots of States in Support of Employee Free Choice
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| Hundreds of Colorado union members turned out to show their support for Employee Free Choice at a town hall meeting with Sen. Michael Bennet. |
At a town hall meeting in Colorado and events in key states, union members and allies are asking their senators to quickly pass the Employee Free Choice Act and make the economy work for everyone.
Don Slaiman, who’s working on the Employee Free Choice Act campaign in the critical state of Colorado, reports that recently appointed Sen. Michael Bennet visited Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 68 hall to hear from workers about the Employee Free Choice Act. It’s one of several town hall meetings Bennet has held around the state, and workers are showing him how strong and broad their support is, Slaiman says:
We had over 400 union members in attendance, representing…almost every local and every part of the state. The appearance, energy, sentiments, diversity and breadth of participation were tremendous.
Workers in Colorado, Arkansas Advance the Fight for Employee Free Choice
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In Colorado, Arkansas and key states around the country, the fight for the Employee Free Choice Act continued over the past week, as grassroots activists got the chance to make the case to elected leaders in support of the freedom to form unions and bargain.
In Colorado, newly appointed Sen. Michael Bennet held a town hall meeting at Washington Park Church of Christ in Denver, part of a statewide tour to discuss the economy. The Rev. Daniel Klawitter, a member of Colorado Interfaith Worker Justice, presented Bennet with 300 letters from religious leaders and workers around the state asking him to support the Employee Free Choice Act.
The AFL-CIO’s Don Slaiman reports that Bennet took a question from him about the Employee Free Choice Act, an issue that Bennet said had been coming up around the state. While he says he’s still studying the issue, Bennet acknowledged that the decline in worker power and the failure of wages to keep up with productivity has hurt the economy. Slaiman, Klawitter and other attendees got a chance to explain to Bennett why they support the Employee Free Choice Act.
