Published: December 12, 2008
Forty two million workers would like to join a union, but can’t. That’s because under the current system allows irresponsible employers to get away with delaying union elections and harassing workers. And even if the workers do vote to unionize, employers can simply refuse to bargain a new contract without facing penalties. Consequently, less than 100,000 joined a union through secret ballot election last year.
The Employee Free Choice Act, a bill soon to come before Congress, is designed to give workers a fair shot at joining the union by giving them, and not their employers, the choice. To fight the bill, Corporate America has launched a multi-million dollar disinformation campaign. They have gone so far as to claim that EFCA would deny workers the right to secret-ballot elections. The truth is that the bill would provide workers with the option of joining a union by signing a card so that employers cannot simply drag their feet and delay votes and collective bargaining.
Although most workers would like to join a union, very few ever get the chance to vote. In fact, employers have been stifling the efforts of workers to lawfully organize a union through elections. By providing workers with the fallback option of joining a union by signing a card, the Employee Free Choice Act restores a fair and even balance between workers and their employers. The bill also creates a process for resolving contract disputes and cracks down on companies that punish workers for exercising their rights.
In the Great Depression, Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act because it recognized that employers held an unfair advantage over workers that they used to depress wage rates. Today, that balance has once again tilted in favor of the employers and needs to be redressed. More than ever, workers need the bargaining strength that comes with unions membership. Unionization can boost the wages of low-wage workers by up to 20 percent. In addition, union workers are 25 percent more likely to have employer-provided health insurance and pensions than otherwise comparable nonunion workers.
It’s no coincidence that the gap between the very wealthy and most other American workers is widening just as the percentage of union jobs has been dropping. The nation’s economic and social well-being depends on maintaining a healthy middle class, which is only possible by paying more to the people who keep the economy moving through hard work. Labor unions with the health, training and benefits they provide can make an immediate and widescale impact on the lives of American workers and their families and, in so doing, on the larger economy as well.
The Employee Free Choice Act would provide workers, once again, with a fair shot at joining a union. What they choose to do is their decision, just as it should be.
Jaime Contreras
Director of the Capital Area of 32BJ
