Employee Free Choice Act brings fresh hope to working families

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070309/OPINION/70308019/1049

Employee Free Choice Act brings fresh hope to working families

John J. Sweeney and Tom Chamberlain

March 9, 2007

Everybody wants their children to do a little better than they’ve done. But more and more, here in Oregon and nationwide, we are seeing our middle class shrink. Wages, health care costs and retirement security are all trouble areas.

One of the main reasons working people are getting left behind is they’ve lost their ability to bargain with their employer for better wages and benefits through unions. Unions are a cornerstone to building and keeping a strong middle class in our nation. Union workers earn on average 30 percent more than workers who don’t have a union, according to government statistics, and they are much more likely to have health care and pensions.

In fact, more than half of workers who don’t already have a union say they’d join one tomorrow if given the chance. But too few are getting that chance.

Employers routinely intimidate, harass, coerce and even fire people who try to improve their lives through unions, and our laws are helpless to stop them. About one in five union activists who tried to form a union were fired since 2000, according to a new study by the nonpartisan Center for Economic and Policy Research. Employers routinely threaten workers with loss of pay and benefits if they form a union. Even after workers successfully form a union, they can’t get a contract one third of the time.

The National Labor Relations Act was designed to protect employee choice on whether to form unions, but it has been turned upside down. Employers have all the power and control all the decisions in the election process. By the time employees vote in a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election, the environment has been so poisoned that a free and fair choice isn’t even an option.

New legislation was just introduced in the U.S. Congress last week that would help level the playing field between management and employees. The Employee Free Choice Act would enact new penalties when employers roll roughshod over workers’ rights. It would bring in an outside mediator to settle a first contract when the employer and workers can’t agree. And it would establish “majority sign-up,” which says that employees can have union representation at a company if a majority of the employees indicate in writing that they want one.

All people who want to have a union to bargain for better wages and benefits deserve a fair chance to form one. It’s time to reform our labor laws to make sure they get that chance. Congresswoman Darlene Hooley has joined with more than 230 of her colleagues in Congress to co-sponsor the Employee Free Choice Act. Now it’s time for Congress to fight for — and win — this freedom to for working women and men to have a fair chance in today’s economy.

By AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney and Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain. To subscribe to the Oregon AFL-CIO’s Weekly Update, please e-mail [e-mail].

[Bluzmann57]

1. I hope this passes.

Here in Iowa, there is a shitty watered down version which apparently will pass. It limits the implementation of it to only state employees. No private employers.

[Liberal Veteran]

2. As a union member I hope this passes too.

One thing that burns me up to no end is the anti-union sentiment of the right.

Right now, I work for a very profitable Fortune 500 company and while the CEO is getting tens of millions in compensation and the company is experiencing wonderful growth and record profits, they want to stick us with a contract that would give us a pittance of a raise and increase our share of health insurance to the point that when you put the two together the majority of us would actually end up bringing LESS money each payday.

[Dinger]

3. K & R (nt)