Employee Free Choice Act: Yes We Can

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.newuniversity.org/main/article?slug=employee_free_choice_act%3A177

Employee Free Choice Act: Yes We Can
by Andrew Tonkovich
Volume 42, Issue 16 | Feb 02 2009

Your take on labor justice is likely all about where you started from. My perspective starts with the old slogan, “An injury to one is an injury to all.” There is probably no need to explain that expression of solidarity, but the question of unity and sharing is about with whom you practice it and how generous you want to be.

I practice vigorous, joyful solidarity with my union brothers and sisters at UC Irvine, including members of units represented by the Union of Professional and Technical Employees (UPTE), the United Autoworkers (UAW), the Coalition of University Employees (CUE) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). AFSCME’s green-T-shirted members recently rallied in response to Governor Schwarzenegger’s threat to limit their work and, yes, their pay, in the face of spending cuts.

Despite the current funding crisis – not to mention the next one and the one after that – my union comrades have power and strength because they have each other. They have a labor contract and the federally protected privilege of being represented in their (our) workplace by a union.

I proceed because other workers are increasingly organizing to join unions. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports nearly 500,000 new members in a year. Why? Because workers’ lives are demonstrably better, benefits are stronger, pay is higher and political and work lives are more meaningfully represented by the workers themselves rather than by management.

So I advance the position that our collective lives and work at UCI would all be improved if unrepresented employees, including Senate faculty (professors), were unionized. They are still encumbered with a medieval system of workplace decision-making, which benefits management by allowing some workers to cut special salary deals with their employer, a classic divide and conquer strategy.

Therefore, I support efforts to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. Before taking office, in an interview with the Washington Post, President Obama said, “I think the basic principal of making it easier and fairer for workers who want to join a union is important. And the basic outline of the Employee Fair Choice is ones that I agree with.”

FULL story at link.

[NNN0LHI]

1. People here don't seem to care much about organizing and maintaining a union

Most would rather just eat shit from their employer until they get fired and then complain about someone else who fought for a union contract.

They also think Toyota and Walmart are the best things since sliced bread.

Don