US trade union leaders have hailed the adoption of the Employee Free Choice Act by the US House of Representatives yesterday as a blow for trade union freedom.
Edward J McElroy, the President of the American Federation of Teachers, said ‘Every year, millions of American workers want to form a union but are denied this fundamental right due to employer harassment and intimidation.
‘The Employee Free Choice Act will remedy this injustice and restore to workers the basic freedom to join a union without fear of retaliation.
‘We applaud Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labour, for his vigorous leadership on this bill, as well as the 230 co-sponsors in the House – a bipartisan majority supporting EFCA.
‘We are particularly encouraged that the bill had strong bipartisan backing led by Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), a sign that our nation’s commitment to restoring worker rights is not a partisan issue but a matter of basic fairness.’
The Bill was introduced in the Senate by Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labour and Pensions.
The passing of the legislation ‘gives American workers a meaningful voice in the workplace.’
McElroy continued: ‘For the first time in nearly 50 years, working families have made a major change in the nation’s labour laws that will give workers greater freedom to make their own decisions about joining a union.’
AFL-CIO trade union federation president, John Sweeney said that ‘Last night, a bipartisan coalition in the new Congress introduced the Employee Free Choice Act, maybe the most important labour law reform in nearly 50 years.’
He said that the Act brings ‘fresh hope to millions of America’s workers who desperately want and need the free choice to join or form a union to improve their families’ lives.’
He added: ‘The best opportunity for working women and men to get ahead economically is by coming together with their co-workers to bargain with their employer for a better life through a union.
‘In fact, government statistics show that working men and women who have a union today make 30 per cent more than workers who do not have a union, and they are far more likely to have health insurance and retirement plans.’
The Employee Free Choice Act will make the process of choosing a union more fair by:
• Establishing stronger penalties for violation of employee rights when workers seek to form a union and during first-contract negotiations.
• Providing mediation and arbitration for first-contract disputes.
• Allowing employees to form unions by signing cards authorising union representation.
In the past, if employees presented an employer with union authorisation cards signed by a majority, the employer could demand a secret ballot election supervised by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
However the NLRB election process was broken because it enabled employers to intimidate, coerce and harass workers and drag out the process indefinitely.
Bill Lawhorn joined with his co-workers five years ago to try to form a union at Consolidated Biscuit Co. (CBC) in McComb, Ohio. Lawhorn was fired after he spoke in favour of the union.
Even though 650 of 875 employees – an overwhelming majority – signed cards saying they wanted a union, CBC responded with threats, harassment and intimidation, forcing workers to attend meetings where they slammed the union and workers were not allowed to say anything. After the union election in 2002, Lawhorn was fired.
Lawhorn said: ‘Since then, the labour board has held that I was illegally fired because of my involvement with the union. And the board ordered CBC to give me my job back with back pay. It’s 2007, and I still have nothing.
‘I haven’t had a steady job in more than four years. We get by because my children have lent us money. At my age, that’s not right. I should be loaning my children money, not the other way around.
‘The laws are set up for the employer to win. Even when he loses, he wins. CBC has been ordered to do a lot of things by the board, but it just doesn’t do them.
‘I don’t have my job back yet. There hasn’t been a second union election. Nothing has been done. Is that right?’
And Lawhorn’s experience is not unique.
Mahelio Rico and his mostly Latino co-workers who work in residential construction in Arizona and Nevada began fighting for a decent wage and better working conditions by forming a union.
The company fired Mahelio less than one month after he submitted evidence in support of a wage and hour lawsuit, claiming he took too long to travel to a new work location.
When the union filed unfair labour practice charges against the company, management claimed Rico was late for work one day and stole an hour of their time.
Employers are well aware that the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act will take away their advantages in the union-selection process.
Some 60 million US workers say they would join a union if they could, based on research conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associates in December 2006.
But when workers tried to gain a voice on the job by forming a union, employers routinely responded with intimidation, harassment and retaliation.
A poll conducted in December by Hart Research showed a strong majority of the public – 65 per cent – approves of unions, up from 55 per cent in 1981.
But that same poll, taken for us at the AFL-CIO, also showed that nearly one-third of the public does not realise how hard management fights workers who seek to form unions. In fact:
• 51 per cent of private-sector employees threaten to shut down partially or totally if the union wins the election.
• 25 per cent of private-sector employers fire at least one worker during organising campaigns.
And management does lots more to intimidate and harass workers seeking to form a union.
The Employee Free Choice Act gives workers the opportunity to make a difference in the workplace, says Nikkia Parish, a former dancer with the Washington (DC) Ballet – former, because her contract wasn’t renewed after she and her co-workers began fighting for a union.
Fed up with relentless work schedules that led to an alarmingly high rate of serious injuries, the dancers demanded respect.
What they got was an aggressive anti-union campaign in which management threatened and intimidated workers and finally offered a 20 per cent raise if they voted against the union, Parish says.
Even that ploy failed and the workers voted for the union. But the process was too long, she says.
Democrat Nancy Pelosi says of the Employee Free Choice Act: ‘The right to form unions, the right to quality health care, the right to bargain collectively and the right to safe workplaces are non-negotiable.
‘Too often, American workers face harassment, intimidation and coercion when they try to exercise the right to join a union.
‘The Employee Free Choice Act preserves this fundamental freedom, benefiting all American workers and their families.’
But the Employee Free Choice Act doesn’t just help union members. University of California-Berkeley professor Harley Shaiken says passing this legislation is about basic American freedoms and a strong economy:
‘The Employee Free Choice Act reaffirms a basic American right and makes solid economic sense. The right is the freedom to choose a union and the economic sense is a vibrant middle class as a result of union membership.
‘In this case, democracy pays a dividend.’