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Free Choice Act Seeks November 13, 2003 Congress today got a proposal that seeks to restore balance to the process of union organizinga process that has become heavily weighted in assisting employers in keeping unions out. The Employee Free Choice Act, sponsored by Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) and Representative George Miller (D-California) was unveiled November 13 at a Washington, D.C. press conference with workers, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and other labor leaders. "It is no mystery why workers want unions," Miller said. "The wages of union workers are 26 percent higher than for nonunion workers. Union workers have better pensions, better health benefits, and better short-term disability coverage. Union workers have contracts that prevent arbitrary firings. So why do unions win only 50 percent of the elections? Because the deck is stacked against employees who want to form a union. We propose a new deck. Not just a new deal." The legislation would allow employees to freely choose whether to form unions by signing cards authorizing union representation, provide mediation and arbitration for first-time contract disputes and establish stronger penalties for employer violation of employee rights. "Employers have for too long held the upper hand, flaunting federal labor law and rendering it useless for workers seeking to assert their collective will through union representation," said IBEW International President Edwin D. Hill. "This law will help even the playing field and give more power to workers." Half a million of America's workers formed unions last year, and tens of millions more say they would like to have a union. Sponsors of the bill point out that with a union, working people win basic rights, like a say in their job, safety and security. When a greater percentage of working people in a community join together in unions, studies show, more middle class jobs, more economic stability and higher levels of civic participation follow. Unions raise wages in a community, even for non-union workers in unionized industries, supporters say. Yet workers are routinely denied their choice to have a union because employers harass, coerce, intimidate -- and even terminate -- their employees to keep them from exercising their freedom to form a union. For details on the legislation, click here On December 10, International Human Rights Day, tens of thousands of workers and their allies across the country will stand up together to assert that workers rights are human rights, and to call on their elected officials to join with Senator Kennedy and Representative Miller in supporting and co-sponsoring the "Employee Free Choice Act." The December 10 events are just the beginning of a nationwide campaign to restore workers freedom to form unions. For more information on the December 10 activities, click here The basic federal labor law enshrining workers right to form unions was passed in 1935, and amended in 1947. It has been weakened in the years since, as employers discovered the laws loopholes and exploited them.
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