Left With No Choice
February 07, 2007
Every day, major U.S. corporations deny their employees the freedom to decide whether to form a union. They do so by routinely intimidating, harassing, coercing and dismissing workers who try to organize for a voice at work. “Every 23 minutes, an American worker is fired or discriminated against for trying to join a union,” AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee said in a released statement. “There is now an entire cottage legal industry dedicated to helping businesses foil workers who try to unionize. Sadly, their business is booming.” On Tuesday, Congress reintroduced the bipartisan Employee Free Choice Act with 231 congressional co-sponsors. The bill would strengthen penalties for union-busting and establish mediation and arbitration during first contract disputes. It would also make it easier for workers to form unions through what’s called “majority sign-up,” which would require employers to grant union recognition if a majority of workers say in writing that they want one. Currently, if employees present an employer with union authorization cards signed by a majority of workers, the employer can demand a secret ballot election supervised by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). But under President Bush, the NLRB enables employers to intimidate, coerce and harass workers and drag out the process indefinitely. More than half of U.S. workers—nearly 60 million nationwide—say they would join a union right now if they could. However, because the current system for forming unions is broken, only 12 percent of American workers are currently unionized. The advantages of achieving collective bargaining rights for American workers cannot be overstated: Unionized workers earn 30 percent higher wages than non-union workers and are 62 percent more likely to have employer-sponsored health care. “The Employee Free Choice Act will give employees the freedom to make their own choices about whether to have a union, without interference by management,” McEntee stated. “Until Congress acts, the right to join a union will exist primarily on paper.”
