Organization Endorsement for the Employee Free Choice Act

Dear Editor,

While Wall Street only recently went into crisis mode, working families have been feeling the pain for years. Even though worker productivity has soared over the last 25 years, wages have gone stagnant. Working families had to turn to second jobs, credit cards and toxic loans just to stay afloat. Meanwhile, corporate executives squandered workers’ increasing profitability on their jet-setter lifestyles.

There’s no question that we need to bring a sense of balance back to our economy and at our places of work. The Employee Free Choice Act would restore workers’ freedom to choose how they want to form a union and bargain collectively for better lives. Ads have falsely attacked this much-needed legislation on the basis of some red-herring notion that it would take away the right to a secret ballot.

So let’s be clear. Workers can still opt for a secret ballot election if they so choose. This legislation gives workers another choice: to form a union when a simple majority of workers sign authorization cards.

The real debate comes down to whether you think corporate executives or workers should get to decide how workers form their union. Today, the boss decides for you. The Employee Free Choice Act puts that decision back in the hands of workers.

Majority signup isn’t new. Over 500,000 workers have joined unions through the less-divisive majority sign-up process at companies like AT&T since 2003.

In the midst of today’s economic uncertainty, we need to be doing everything we can to strengthen and grow the middle class. Working people know that the power to bargain collectively is the surest way to secure livable wages and quality health care. The Employee Free Choice Act is the key to making sure that working families earn their fair share for their hard work.

Polly Baca
Denver

The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) now before Congress makes it easier for employees to designate a bargaining agent, such as a union. I ask everyone to become informed about this legislation and ask Sens. Snowe and Collins to support it. This legislation gives employees of a bargaining unit the right to decide whether to call an election or use the card check method of approving or disapproving representation. Under current law, it’s the employers who do the deciding.

The Ellsworth American ran an editorial on March 12 that unfairly characterizes the EFCA; the editorial found fault with the provision that would confirm the right of workers to form or join a union by the card check method, that is by simply signing up. This is, of course, how most organizations are formed, from bowling teams to churches. History shows that employers have often intimidated and even fired employees in their attempts to influence the outcome of a future election.

The American middle class, whose heart is small business owners and union workers, is in trouble. As union membership has declined, wealth inequality has dramatically increased. According to a recent report by the Center for American Progress, a 5 percent increase in union workers would add $77 million to the Maine economy. I am talking here about unionization at Walmart and other large corporations and not about unionizing small businesses. The Employee Free Choice Act will strengthen the middle class.

Two years ago, the Employee Free Choice Act won a majority of bipartisan support in both houses of Congress, but was stopped in the Senate by a filibuster. Now, in the midst of our national economic crisis, it’s time for Sen. Collins and Sen. Snowe to stand with Maine’s workers and allow the Employee Free Choice Act to become law and play a part in rebuilding a fair and balanced economy.

It’s town meeting season in Maine, a time when we citizens in smaller towns have the opportunity to vote and make choices about economic issues important to our families. I am thankful for such a democratic system of town government. I am also thankful that I have similar democratic options as a member of my union, the National Association of Letter Carriers. We too vote on economic issues, such as contracts, union dues and all union disbursements. We vote on issues pertaining to working conditions, safety and health. Members vote for all union representatives by secret ballot. We don’t vote just once a year; at each of our monthly union meetings, anywhere from eight to 20 votes are taken on various questions.

Workers without union representation don’t get to vote on anything. Period. Right now, should workers decide to seek a measure of democracy at work through union representation, they face one huge obstacle: employer intimidation. Since the National Labor Relations Act was passed in 1935, there have been just 42 cases of proven misconduct on the part of union organizers. That’s well below one per year. In the year 2007 alone, there were 29,559 instances of management using illegal firings and other discrimination against workers seeking to unionize.

The Employee Free Choice Act, just introduced into Congress, is a life jacket for workers who want to have a voice at work to improve benefits, wages and working conditions. The current system for forming a union is unfair because it gives employers, not workers, the right to decide the method used: secret ballot election or majority signup. Most employers opt for the election, not because they like employee democracy, but because the 45-day (or longer) process allows them ample opportunity to use means both legal and illegal to influence the outcome (see above). The Employee Free Choice Act will let workers themselves choose how to unionize. They can use the election process (if 30 percent of them want to), or they can collect union authorization cards from a majority of their co-workers (majority signup) and thus skip 45-plus days of intimidation.

Contrary to the statements of corporate interests and their lobbying groups, the Employee Free Choice Act does not change how unions are formed, nor does it take away the right to a secret ballot. Secret ballot elections and majority signup are both used today. The act will simply (and justly) give the choice back to workers. It’s clear that corporate leaders do not always know what’s best for us. Look at how they’ve ruined our financial system. Workers need to have a bigger voice in the economy.

The tradition of town meetings that I grew up with in Maine taught me the value of participatory democracy. I cannot imagine tolerating a less democratic form of town government. I likewise cannot imagine why anyone who cares about democracy would tolerate a broken system that makes it possible for management to intimidate workers into silence. My praise goes out to Reps. Mike Michaud and Chellie Pingree (co-sponsors of the Employee Free Choice Act) for listening to Maine’s working people who want a voice on the job and a better life for their families.

Surry resident John H. Curtis is a letter carrier who works out of the Ellsworth Post Office.

Once again the newspaper is bashing unions ["New Virginia?"]. Several editorials in the past few months have demonized union members and characterized them as bullies bent on destroying democracy and the cause of our economic problems.

Do you realize whom you are talking about? You are talking about thousands of hard-working citizens around Virginia. You are describing our teachers and firefighters, the workers at Verizon and Philip Morris, the 18-year-old grocery clerk, and your electrician. You are describing me -- a letter-carrier. Union members in Virginia simply have chosen to bargain collectively for a better life.

With our economy in a tailspin, it's time to rebuild our economy so that it works for everyone again. People who have unions earn 30 percent more than people who don't, and are much more likely to have health care and pensions.

Beyond being good for workers, unions are good for communities. Better wages and benefits mean that families can make it on their own. Our country needs unions now more than ever. It was so nice to hear that the three Democratic candidates for governor (Creigh Deeds, Terry McAuliffe, and Brian Moran), as well as lieutenant gubernatorial candidate Jody Wagner, decided to stand up for working people in Crystal City.

Your "Stark Differences" editorial was a tirade against the Employee Free Choice Act that unwittingly revealed the real reason we need it. When you note that the EFCA "could effectively eliminate the secret-ballot election," you are right on the money -- but not because the bill mandates any such thing. In fact, under the EFCA, workers would be free to choose whether to organize by either a simple majority of signed worker authorizations (card check) or a secret ballot election. Either way, the EFCA allows workers to make the decision.

The reason folks support the EFCA is as simple as the main provision of the bill itself: If a majority of workers sign union cards, they are entitled to union representation. The current secret-ballot system that your editorial champions as a "cornerstone of representative democracy" is a sham. It allows management, not workers, to dictate the terms of the vote. That translates into allowing corporate union busters ample time to intervene in the process with a combination of threats, bribes, and other tactics designed to strangle the baby in the crib. That's hardly democratic. That is also why the secret ballot election will likely disappear when the EFCA is passed.

And it will pass. The EFCA has had broad support for years. Only the threat of a Republican filibuster kept it from passing in Congress in 2007 -- a fact your editorial conveniently omits. You quote GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell, who warns that "this is not the time to imperil our free enterprise system." Wake up! It's already in trouble and it's because of greedy CEOs and hapless management, not unions.

If folks want to organize for better pay, better health benefits, and better working conditions, why not let them? It's only fair.

The recent letter by Harry Roberts, "Senator Should Heed Constituents' Views," incorrectly portrays the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) as eliminating workers' rights to a secret-ballot election. This is absolutely not true. The EFCA does not affect the option to hold a secret ballot election -- it simply makes it the workers' choice rather than the employer's decision.

There have been two options for choosing a union since 1935: majority sign-up or a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election process. Under the EFCA, the two options will still exist. The difference is that a majority of workers will decide between the two options instead of management making the decision for the employees. Shouldn't it be the workers' decision and not the employer's?

I applaud Sen. Jim Webb for his stance on the EFCA. Most Virginians are hurting right now. For too long we've let Wall Street and CEOs go unchecked. Now our economy is collapsing and working families like mine are losing their jobs, their homes, and their health care.

We need to act now to ensure that workers -- and not just CEOs -- can share in the prosperity they help create. The EFCA would give workers the choice of how they want to form a union to secure improved wages, benefits, and working conditions. This legislation would simply restore basic rights workers enjoyed for decades when our middle class was strong.

Unions Improve Life For All Workers Richmond Times-Dispatch, January 23, 2009

Unions Improve Life For All Workers
Richmond Times-Dispatch, January 23, 2009