Expanding workers’ rights helps economy

"I don't buy the argument that providing workers with collective-bargaining rights somehow weakens the economy or worsens the business environment. If you've got workers who have decent pay and benefits, they're also customers for business."

— President Barack Obama

How is it that simple logic eludes so many politicians in Washington?

History shows that when Americans have access to jobs with good pay and benefits, the country’s economy thrives and grows. And when workers are denied basic rights – such as the right to organize a union to improve their wages and working conditions – the negative effects are felt throughout our economy.

We have an opportunity to change direction and get back on the path of economic growth and shared prosperity. The Employee Free Choice Act is a sure route to get us there.

When people have adequate incomes, they have the power to purchase the goods and services they produce. This cycle of consumer spending accounts for two-thirds of all economy activity in the United States.

So why would we want to impede workers from earning better wages and thereby increasing their purchasing power?

And why would we want to let other countries make an increasingly large share of the products we buy?

Of course, companies must answer to their stockholders who are looking for good quarterly reports and dividends. We know that companies can, in the short run, improve returns to investors by moving work to countries where wages are abysmally low and labor and environmental regulations are nonexistent or not enforced.

But in the long run our economy is badly damaged when outsourcing and offshoring become the rule, rather than the exception. And when we talk about "our economy" what we’re really talking about is millions of individual lives that have been shattered by our short-sightedness.

You simply can’t deny a decent income to the majority of people on whom you depend to buy your products and expect to keep turning a profit. Yet that’s what we have been doing for decades now, by denying workers the right to join unions and bargain for better wages.

With a new president and a new Congress, we have an opportunity to change direction and get back on the path of economic growth and shared prosperity. The Employee Free Choice Act is a sure route to get us there.

This important reform would give workers the freedom to decide whether to form their own union if a simple majority signs cards or chooses by secret ballot their desire to do so. Contrary to the false statements made by the business lobbying groups who oppose this simple, fair reform bill, workers still have the option of ballot election if a majority chooses it.

The advantage of majority signup is that employers no longer have a prolonged time period in which to intimidate, threaten and even fire workers involved in organizing drives, tactics that are all too common in today’s workplace.

The legislation also increases fines for companies that break the law during organizing drives, and it provides for mediation and arbitration if a first contract can’t be reached within 120 days. This measure will eliminate the stalling tactics companies frequently use to deny workers their right to union representation.

The Employee Free Choice Act has majority support in both houses of Congress, but the Big Business lobby is pressuring a minority of senators to block it with a filibuster.

The UAW and the entire labor movement are geared up to get this critical bill passed. But it will take every union member to get it done. Please contact your senators and representative and urge them to sign on as co-sponsors of the Employee Free Choice Act, and ask your family and friends to do the same.

Together we can restore dignity to work by giving working people a share in a revitalized economy and the prosperity it brings.

Signature

Ron Gettelfinger