Trumka: Give Workers, Not Their Bosses, the Choice on Forming a Union

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by Seth Michaels, Jun 19, 2009

As part of the AFL-CIO’s Labor 2008 program, Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka educated voters about the Employee Free Choice Act.

In the latest issue of International Union Rights, the journal of the International Centre for Trade Union Rights (ICTUR), AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer explains what the Employee Free Choice Act would mean for America’s workers and the entire economy and makes a strong case why the freedom of America’s workers to form unions and bargain matters for workers around the world.

Trumka says the Employee Free Choice Act is necessary to bring balance to workplaces and put decisions about forming a union back where they belong—in the hands of workers:

Currently, an employer can demand a company-controlled election and workers would have no say in the matter. The Employee Free Choice Act would require the NLRB to certify a bargaining representative without mandating an election if a majority of the bargaining unit employees signed such cards in the majority sign-up. Most critically, the choice would be up to the workers, not management.

In short, the Employee Free Choice Act would guarantee workers their right to choose a bargaining representative either through majority sign-up or a ballot election process. It would thus give the choice of whether to join a union to the workers themselves instead of to companies.

Trumka takes a critical look at America’s union-busting industry and at the multimillion-dollar campaigns that big corporations are using to defeat workers’ union campaigns in individual workplaces. Trumka starts with the story of Kelly Beringer, a nurse who faced harassment and interference in her attempts to join a union, but he notes that she’s not alone—recent studies have shown that far too many employers act with impunity to intimidate, pressure and even fire employees seeking a union:

Employers in this country have a lot of assistance in fighting unionization. In fact, union-busting is a $4 billion industry in the United States. When faced with a group of workers who want to form a union, U.S. employers all too often turn to these firms, packed with corporate lawyers who, for a steep price, provide them with all the dirty tricks they can undertake inside and outside the law.

Trumka notes that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and their corporate allies also are dumping millions into crushing efforts to create legislation to give workers a fair shot at forming a union:

Opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act have launched a $200 million campaign to defeat it. Working through front groups with innocuous-sounding names like the Center for Union Facts, organizations like the National Association of Manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and giant corporations are bombarding the airwaves and filling major newspapers with pricey advertisements designed to turn public opinion against the proposed legislation. More crucially, their lobbyists are deluging lawmakers in Congress with repeated visits and contacts to pressure them into voting against the bill when it comes up this year.

Supporters of workers’ rights around the world are stepping up to push back against the vicious campaigns against unions and the Employee Free Choice Act, Trumka says.

You can get a copy of the latest issue of International Union Rights here

White House: Employee Free Choice a Priority

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by Seth Michaels, Jun 3, 2009

President Obama and AFL-CIO President John Sweeney on the campaign trail last fall.

In yesterday’s White House press briefing, a reporter raised the question of whether President Barack Obama and the administration continued to support the Employee Free Choice Act.

Here’s what White House press secretary Robert Gibbs had to say:

I think you heard the President talk about his support for it throughout the campaign, and it’s obviously one of many things that we will work on throughout our time here.

I believe it is, again, something the President campaigned on and we’d like to see happen.

This is no surprise—Barack Obama and his administration have reiterated several times over their continued support for Employee Free Choice and the need to restore workers’ freedom to bargain as a critical part of economic recovery.

Despite an ongoing, multimillion-dollar corporate disinformation campaign and the ferocious opposition by the enablers of CEOs in the Senate, the Employee Free Choice Act continues to have the strong support in the White House and in both houses of Congress, and that’s a testament to the determination and grassroots mobilization of millions of union members and a broad coalition of allies who know that it’s what our economy needs.