Maine GOP State Legislator Supports Employee Free Choice Act, and Other Highlights from Around the Country
Guess who’s joining the campaign for the Employee Free Choice Act in Maine?
It’s state Rep. Jim Campbell, a Republican who is defying the expectations of pundits and corporate shills by supporting workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain. He has appeared at public events around the state and written in local news outlets to show his support for the Employee Free Choice Act.
Here’s what Campbell says about the need to pass the Employee Free Choice Act and its importance to rebuilding the economy:
Common-sense solutions should be used to create good jobs that can support a family and put money back into our economy. Historically, no institution has been as effective at improving the quality of life for working families as membership in a union. Union members earn better wages, have better health care coverage and can count on a more secure retirement than nonunion workers.
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Minnesota Supreme Court Rules Franken Winner in Senate Race
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UPDATE 4:41 p.m.: Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has announced he will certify the election.
UPDATE 4:02 p.m.: Former Sen. Norm Coleman has conceded. Al Franken will be the next senator from Minnesota.
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The Minnesota Supreme Court, after nearly eight months of counting and appeals, has ruled that Al Franken won the election to be Minnesota’s next U.S. senator.
Franken was endorsed by the AFL-CIO last year and union members worked hard on his behalf.
In the ruling, available here, the five state Supreme Court justices unanimously agreed:
For all of the foregoing reasons, we affirm the decision of the trial court that Al Franken received the highest number of votes legally cast and is entitled under Minn. 32 Stat. § 204C.40 (2008) to receive the certificate of election as United States Senator from the State of Minnesota.
UPDATE: Here’s what AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney had to say about this important decision:
America’s workers congratulate Al Franken—and the people of Minnesota who have gone 226 days without a second Senator—for their unanimous victory today in the Minnesota Supreme Court.
Thousands Rally, Say We Can’t Wait for Health Care Reform
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Coming from unions, community organizations and all walks of life, nearly 10,000 supporters of health care reform gathered on Capitol Hill today to send a strong message: We demand affordable, high-quality health care for all, and we aren’t waiting any longer.
Every corner of the Upper Senate Park on Capitol Hill was filled this afternoon with union members, health care advocates and community activists from scross the country, and they heard from not only members of Congress and union leaders, but also from nurses, small business owners, workers and parents who told compelling stories about why we need health care reform.
Today’s the Day to Make Your Voice Heard on Health Care
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Thousands of union members, community activists and health care advocates from across the country will converge on Capitol Hill today to demand that Congress pass health care reform legislation that provides quality health care for all.
Today’s rally and lobby day sponsored by Health Care for America Now! (HCAN) is expected to be the largest-ever health care reform rally. It’s taking place from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Upper Senate Park.
The rally will provide a much-needed voice on Capitol Hill for millions of families that are uninsured, under-insured and fed up with being at the mercy of insurance companies. Participants will call for real change in health care, including a public health insurance option for workers and families who either have private insurance or no coverage at all.
California Veterans, Union Members Want Employee Free Choice
A coalition of veterans who are union members and other supporters of the freedom to form unions are gathering today in Los Angeles to send a strong message: Pass the Employee Free Choice Act now to give veterans the chance they need for a better life.
Organized by the L.A. County Federation of Labor, these union veterans will rally outside the office of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, urging her and all of California’s members of Congress to vote for the Employee Free Choice Act to restore workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain.
As part of the rally, these veterans and workers will debut a new video that shows why veterans need the Employee Free Choice Act. This video includes testimony from a number of veterans who spoke at an April town hall meeting in Los Angeles attended by Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis.
In the Field: High Momentum for Employee Free Choice Act
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Reports are piling in from around the country from union members and their allies in the faith, civil rights, small business and environmental communities who are helping advance the Employee Free Choice Act and workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain for a better life.
In Maine, the Sierra Club, along with Bill Murphy, director of the University of Maine’s Bureau of Labor Education, held a press conference to announce that the environmental community is strongly in favor of Employee Free Choice, which they say will ensure workers have a voice in how businesses operate in their communities.
In Fort Collins, Colo., the Rev. Daniel Klawitter of Interfaith Worker Justice, led a community meeting in support of the Employee Free Choice Act that helped raise funds for an area food bank. Union members and members of Working America, the AFL-CIO community affiliate, joined him in supporting the food bank and the freedom to form unions, which Klawitter said was “the most effective anti-poverty program” available to workers.
Employee Free Choice: Snippets from Op-Eds Around the Nation
Here are a few highlights from newspapers around the country that make the case for why we need the Employee Free Choice Act.
In Maine, Bill Murphy, director of the University of Maine’s Labor Education Program, writes a great op-ed in the Bangor Daily News explaining how our current labor laws are broken and how the Employee Free Choice Act can fix the system for workers:
The central legal principle of the National Labor Relations Act, or NLRA, is to provide workers in the private sector with the democratic right to organize unions in the workplace…. However, for large numbers of workers, the rights established under this law no longer exist, because of willful employer violations and a lack of adequate statutory enforcement.
For all too many workers, the right to obtain justice on the job through unionization has been either denied or delayed. Enactment of the Employee Free Choice Act will enable workers and their organizations to remedy this injustice.
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.
Rabbis Send Specter a Message: Support Employee Free Choice
Today, a coalition of Philadelphia-area rabbis and rabbinical students will meet with Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter to make the case for the Employee Free Choice Act.
Dozens of Pennsylvania rabbis and rabbinical students signed an open letter in support of Employee Free Choice, organized by the Philadelphia Jewish Labor Committee (JLC), and will deliver it today to Specter. Specter is a key vote in the fight for workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain—a fight that these rabbis know is critical to our economy and to basic fairness.
The meeting and letter are part of a larger outreach effort by the JLC to promote workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain. These values, say a growing coalition of rabbis, are a key part of the Jewish tradition of supporting the dignity of workers and the strength of communities.
Pennsylvania Union Members to Specter: Pass Employee Free Choice
This past weekend, Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter attended his first meeting of the state Democratic Party as its newest member in Congress. Before he introduced himself to elected officials, however, he paid an important visit to a Pittsburgh rally for the Employee Free Choice Act.
Specter’s appearance at the rally is on video in two parts, here and here.
Before an audience of hundreds of union members, Specter—who was supportive of the Employee Free Choice Act in past years and will be a key vote this year—tried to make his case as to why union members should give him another term in the U.S. Senate.
Specter talked about how he defied his former party earlier this year, voting for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which he said means “a lot of jobs” for Pennsylvania, and noted other key votes he’s taken to strengthen Pennsylvania jobs. He also said he’s going to “work with” President Obama on health care.
