House Passes Employee Free Choice Act ( 241–185)

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/03/01/house-passes-employee-free-choice-act/

House Passes Employee Free Choice Act

by James Parks, Mar 1, 2007

After more than five hours of historic debate, the House of Representatives passed the most important labor law reform legislation in 70 years.

By a margin of 241–185, the House passed H.R. 800, which would level the playing field when workers seek to form a union and bargain. Thirteen Republicans joined 228 Democrats in voting for the bill. Two Democrats and 183 Republicans voted against the bill.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says the House vote:

…marks a momentous turning point in the growing movement to restore our nation’s middle class. Today, the voices of tens of millions of working people who deserve the right to make a free choice to bargain for a better life have been heard and heeded on Capitol Hill.

Because of today’s vote, the future looks a little brighter to all Americans who have watched corporations celebrate record profits, but have themselves been shut out of the party, left with stagnant wages and facing soaring costs. A union card is the single best ticket into the middle- class and, thanks to the Employee Free Choice Act, working people may finally have the chance to be part of a union.

FULL story at link.

[napi21]

1. I'm afraid they won't be so lucky in the Senate though.

Is it even possible to get a majority in the Senate? All thoserural and southern Senators don't like unions at all!

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

18. Not to mention a Veto.

nt

[DemKR]

2. McConnell filibusters anything he doesn't agree with

So I'm guessing no

[pscot]

3. Maybe the Democrats can Attach it to some veto-proof

legislation somewhere down the road. Right now all it amounts to is a way to embarrass the Repukes. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

[Hotler]

4. Shows some hope......

it doesn't mater anymore if you're union or non-union, most managers, business owners, and corporate ceo's hate the american worker, the thought of an employee being empowered drives them crazy. The thought of any employee standing up for themselves pisses them off. If you hire illegal immigrants you're unpatriotic, if you send your manufacturing overseas, you're unpatriotic, if you send your manufacturing to a communist country, you're a god damn traitor. Greed is the only reason America is not the manufacturing capital of the world.

[jhasp]

29. Let me tell you a story.....

I used to work for a regional bank and a coworker told me a story one day about about the CEO of the bank that changed my mind about him (the CEO). The coworker was in a sales role and hadn't worked for the bank very long (he was probably about 25-26 when this happened) and was by no means a manager. His wife was about 4 hours away taking the CPA exam and she went into labor several months early. The hospital was calling around trying to find her husband, who was out on a sales call. The CEO got involved and found him and had a plane waiting for him at the airport to take him to his wife. The only instructions that my coworker received from the CEO was that he (the CEO) knew what his priorities would be, and he expected the same out of my coworker.

The coworker's son lived, but needed a lot of help to survive. For six months, my coworker stayed with his wife and child several hours away at the pediatric hospital. For the entire time, he received his regular pay with no questions asked about when he would return.

When he was telling me this story, the guy's eyes started tearing up. The CEO is the much maligned Jim Walton (yes, THAT Jim Walton). I've had the opportunity to meet Jim Walton on a few occasions and he is a really nice, down-to-earth guy who cares a lot about his employees. I used to be a manager, before reentering academia. I've met many CEOs, managers, and business owners and most of them actually care a lot about their employees. There are some cases, though, where managers do treat their employees as a commodity and don't care if they are unhappy. In those cases, I see unionization as a good option. However, unionization introduces a lot of conflict in the worker-manager relationship, so good management is preferable to unionization.

[OKthatsIT]

32. So we have ONE enlightened CEO?

The story is heartwarming, though.

HOWEVER, labor history depicts a more unhuman management...and certainly NOT family friendly.

[Ian David]

5. That Repuke woman from Texas was saying that America doesn't need Unions anymore.

She implied that the unions are all in league with COMMUNISTS (ARGH!)

[toopers]

6. How does this empower the individual employee?

eom

[enki23]

7. it allows individual employees to freely choose whether to form a union

eom.

[toopers]

8. They already had that choice.

EOM

[enki23]

9. clearly you're playing at some anti-union bullshit. i won't be biting further

eom.

[toopers]

10. I don't know enough about the bill . . .

to be for it or against it. Since I work in a Union Shop I know the current procedure. How do the procedures change?

[Omaha Steve]

11. Signing a card is all that is needed

NO delayed election for one thing.

[bread_and_roses]

12. IF you "work in a Union Shop" and belong to the union I would think

that your union would have put out information on EFCA. If you really need and want information that you are otherwise not getting, it is easily available at: http://www.aflcio.org/ where you can find out what the Act is, why it is needed, etc. Five minutes reading should do it.

[toopers]

13. I work in it but I don't belong yet . . .

I have received a lot of pressure to join, but not yet.

[Doremus]

14. Enjoying the benefits without the responsibilities?

That's one way to do it.

Not the way I would choose, but whatever creams your twinkie.

[toopers]

16. I haven't seen that the benefits outweigh the investment.

eom

[BlueCollar]

17. your dues probably wouldn't amount to much more

than two hours pay per month...

The investment pays off when you need the representation rights at the bargaining table or in a disciplinary hearing...

unless you think the company you work for would give you your CBA benefits out of sheer generosity and goodwill...?

[Doremus]

22. Do you receive the same health insurance, sick leave,

wage increases, working conditions, etc. as the union workers?

Then you're receiving benefits ... you just get them for free while everyone else pays for them.

Some would call that freeloading, but I think it's worse than that. There's a thing called solidarity and it transcends a few bucks for dues.

[underpants]

25. Here you go-Summaries of the bill, George Will on it, Robert Reich on it

I read these today. I see why it was passed. By the way Peter King was a co-sponsor so it was bipartisan (King reps a fairly unionized district--I THINK)

http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/voiceatwork/efca/upload/Employee_Free_Choice_Act_Summary.pdf

http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/takeaction/efca/

George Will
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/GeorgeWill/2007/02/27/the_employee_%5Bnot-so%5D-free_choice_act

Robert Reich
http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0301-27.htm

[pokercat999]

27. What is also needed today is the right to unionize

franchises. Most franchises are owned by individuals or LLCs' or other types of small corporations. Most franchisers have few employees (think one Mickey D or Midas) thus the employees do not have enough numbers to even try for collective bargaining power. If however the employees of all franchisers in a franchise (all employees of all Mickey D's everywhere) could organize it would be an entirely different story.

[Sapere aude]

28. Every employer has a industry organization to belong to that looks out for the interests of the

industry. Individuals are going it alone against powerful forces. Unions are similar to industry organizations only they are in support of the interests of the workers. Make it easier to form unions then empowers individual employees.

[WorldResident]

15. That's nice, free choice for employees. What is this bill about anyways?

;)

[hellbound-liberal]

19. Here's a link to a speech by Rep. George Miller (D-CA) speaking for the Act. Great stuff!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HKhEN2TZHs&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ecrooksandliars%2Ecom%2F

[maxrandb]

20. The Corporations are putting the "big push" on

I couldn't figure out why there was a radio add running yesterday urging me to call Representative Thelma Drake and tell her to "protect American workers from 'big-union-bosses'".

The add was from some random "think-tank" (read Right-wingnut group, I'm sure). Complete with sinister voices, etc.

Then it occurred to me. The "big-union-bosses" they were talking about are probably guys like my next door neighbor (a firefighter), or the coach of my daughters swim team (an English teacher).

The Democratic Party began to die, when Democrats stopped fighting for the Union men and women of this country.

Of course, hate radio, and the massive conservative noise machine's "demonization" of unions over the last two decades didn't help either.

Wake-up America!!! Those "big-union-bosses" described so sinisterly by the right, are really your everyday, ordinary, hard-working Americans".

Hell, some of them probably even would save your ass in a fire, or teach your kid to do the butterfly...or maybe, not!

[Hugin]

31. Yep, there is really a 'big push' on.

Collective Bargaining is a classic corporatist hatred and you'd better believe what is
bad for the corporatists is good for everybody else.

They're also feeling the heat... People aren't happy. Of course, one never hears anything
about it via the corporate owned media, but, there is a whole lot of anger on the streets.

[Javaman]

21. Who were the dems that voted against? let me guess one. lieberman? nt

[knight_of_the_star]

23. Not yet

Hasn't hit the Senate just yet.

[Zhade]

24. No, because he's NOT a Dem.

NT!

[PaDem]

26. Lieberman will support this in a heartbeat

not sure why he came to mind quite frankly.

[Hugin]

30. I hope this makes it.

:kick: