Today the Senate took up the Employee Free Choice Act, which I wrote about in an earlier posting. The Senate Bill is S. 1041. So far only 51 Senators voted for giving workers more rights to organize in the workplace; although, the bill needed 60 votes to proceed. This shows that a minority can still stop this bill that makes organizing workers much more fair than it is today. Even if this bill would have received the 60 needed votes in the Senate, our pro-corporate, anti-worker president said that he would veto it.
From a workers/labor perspective, this is one major reason why 2008 is so important. We need to elect a Democrat to the White House, and we have to get larger majorities in the House of Representatives, and especially the Senate.
Let’s be honest about one thing: the secret ballot election gives the companies too much leverage over the workers. The six to eight week timeframe between filing for an election and and the actual election date gives the bosses more than ample time to intimidate workers, fire workers, coerce workers, etc. against voting for being represented by a union of their choice. As long as they are paid for their time, workers must sit through “captive-audience” meetings run by paid anti-union goons to persuade workers to give the boss “one more chance.”
The Employee Free Choice Act would eliminate the secret ballot election, and would take away the employers’ advantage. If the Employee Free Choice Act became law, all workers would need to do to form a union in their workplace would be to have a simple majority of their co-workers sign “Authorization” Cards, and the company would be forced to recognize the workers’ rights and negotiate a collective bargaining agreement with them and the union of their choice.
As you ponder this, remember two important facts:
1.) In 2006, over 23,000 workers were fired in this country for trying to organize a union in their workplace or for speaking with a union organizer–even though this is illegal.
2.) Over 60% of American workers have said repeatedly that they would like to be union members and work under a collective bargaining agreement if they knew that they would not be fired or harrassed for joining a union.
The Employee Free Choice Act would give workers a strong voice again in the workplace and help revitalize a much-needed labor movement in this country.