NLRB hears from 15,000 of us ... at once!

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.seiu.org/2011/07/nlrb-hears-from-15000-of-us-at-once.php

2:49 PM Eastern - Tuesday, July 19, 2011

By Richard Negri


Our letter with 15,000 workers and worker-activists' signatures attached.

On June 21st, the National Labor Relations Board announced proposed rules to modernize the union election process. This small step forward for working people, we knew, would be met with fierce opposition, and it has. So we mobilized online to push back on the opposition by getting the Board to hear our voices. Our goal to deliver a letter co-signed by as many workers as possible during the open public comment sessions was accomplished today!


When we told NLRB Executive Secretary Lester A. Heltzer that he was holding a letter signed by more than 15,000 workers and worker activists who support the proposed rule change, he was impressed, saying our action was "definitely a first."

For decades, the federal government has allowed big corporations to litigate workers' efforts to death when we try to form a union and get a leg up in supporting our families. Unfortunately, irresponsible companies typically delay our elections and frequently retaliate against anyone working to form a union. During organizing campaigns, more than one-third of employers fire pro-union workers, even though it is our legal right to form or join a union.

When everyday people in this country stand up and want to be heard--whether it's in state capitols or at work--they should be. SEIU member Veronica Tench, an employee St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles, zeroed in on this point yesterday when she testified before the Board. Veronica shared that she and her coworkers started organizing to form a union in 1998, but were only able to vote in June of this year - 13 years later! For more than a decade Veronica and her co-workers waited just to have a fair election to vote for their union.

Veronica said, "Even before we filed the petition, the hospital administration quickly began an anti-union campaign. Management published 'Say No to the Union' fliers, brought in more security guards to keep out union organizers and the hospital hired outside lawyers to hold meetings about why we shouldn't join the union. Since my co-workers and I felt we couldn't talk freely at work, we would have our meetings outside of the hospital."

FULL story at link.