BUSINESS STEPS UP ATTACKS AGAINST LABOR LAW REFORM
Momentum builds for Employee Free Choice Act
When your opponents start shrieking, it’s a good sign you’re making progress.
Randel Johnson, spokesman for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, described the debate over the Employee Free Choice Act as “a firestorm bordering on Armageddon.” And multimillionaire Bernie Marcus, founder of the Home Depot retail chain, said the bill signals “the demise of a civilization.”
Business owners who do not join the campaign against labor law reform, Marcus added, “should be shot, should be thrown out of their [expletive] jobs.”
This over-the-top rhetoric is in reaction to a straightforward bill that would restore a level playing field to the American workplace. The Employee Free Choice Act will allow workers to choose whether to organize a union through majority signup of union authorization cards or an election supervised by the National Labor Relations Board.
Workers have the same two options now, except current law allows employers to reject majority signup, giving management the power to decide how workers can organize their unions. The Employee Free Choice Act means what it says: Employees will have the right to choose.
The legislation, which passed the U.S. House in 2007 but was blocked in the U.S. Senate by a GOP-led filibuster, was introduced in Congress March 10 by Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.
The bill is supported by majorities in both houses and by President Barack Obama. The latest Gallup Poll shows a 53 percent to 39 percent majority in favor of reforms to make it easier for workers to organize unions.
In April the bill won endorsement from the influential Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, a group of more than 200 organizations working to end discrimination and expand equal opportunity for all Americans.
“[This] is a fight not just to make sure everyone has a job, but also to make sure everyone has a good job,” said NAACP President Benjamin Jealous. “In times when we’re looking at getting our economy going again, putting more money in the pockets of working people is good for the entire country.”
But the Employee Free Choice Act still faces a tough fight in the Senate, where business-backed legislators have pledged another filibuster. Sixty votes will be needed to break this undemocratic stalling tactic, and corporate lobbyists are doing everything possible to prevent a simple majority vote on the Senate floor.
Two senators who previously supported Employee Free Choice – Republican Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Democrat Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas – have responded to business pressure and announced they will vote against the bill this time.
Union members and supporters are pushing back just as hard.
America’s two labor federations, the AFL-CIO and Change to Win, have joined forces to sponsor TV ads touting Employee Free Choice and to produce giant banners featuring the faces of workers posted on buildings in Washington. A third sponsor is American Rights at Work, a nonprofit advocacy organization for workers chaired by former U.S. Rep. David Bonior.
While members of Congress were home for spring recess, the federations scheduled an aggressive, grassroots lobbying campaign featuring more than 350 local events in legislators’ home districts.
For the latest information on this key legislative battle, visit the Employee Free Choice Act section of www.uaw.org.
