How to rebuild our middle-class
Restoring good wages, health care, retirement security and good jobs – this is the way to rebuild middle class America, and this is what the Pennsylvania union movement does best.
Today, we have that opportunity to do just that. The Employee Free Choice Act – passed by the House of Representatives and up for a vote in the Senate – will help middle class families regain their place in the U.S. economy.
How? By providing working people with the opportunity for a real voice on the job, through union representation, along with the standing to negotiate with employers so that workers are no longer treated like the expendable property some employers would like them to be.
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Contrast these goals with the all-too-typical actions of today’s corporate management. Just a few months ago, Circuit City fired 3,400 workers simply because it decided that their wages – about $11 to $12 an hour for most – were just too high. These workers were fired despite the fact that they were experienced and well-qualified and their pay was based on merit. Management did invite these workers to reapply for their jobs -- at half pay.
Why aren’t more workers in United States joining unions? A new poll tells us that nearly 60 percent of eligible workers would join a union if they could. So what’s going on?
Today, employers dominate the process, spending hundreds of millions of dollars and involving managers throughout the company, even though labor law clearly states that workers, not management, should make this decision.
Opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act claim they’re supporting democracy by insisting that only secret ballot elections can truly determine workers’ choice. But workers today aren’t voting under fair conditions, according to Professor Gordon Lafer, an expert on labor law at the University of Oregon. Lafer’s two years of extensive research found that NLRB elections “are characterized by an extraordinary level of illegal activity,” he recently told Congress.
To get a better idea of the kinds of illegal tactics use and what workers are up against, imagine what our local, state and national elections would be like if they operated under the current labor law rules.
Imagine a political election in America where one candidate had names and addresses of voters for several months to use for mailings and door to door canvassing, but the other candidate couldn’t have that information until about 20 days before the election.
Imagine a political campaign where only one candidate has access to public parks and shopping malls for campaign activities.
Imagine an election where a candidate is charged and ultimately convicted of illegal campaign activities and voter fraud but goes ahead and takes office anyway while his lawyers delay the investigation for years.
Those are the kinds of actions that most employers take routinely and they block workers from making their own free and fair choice about union representation. From the very minute that employers get wind of any worker interest in having a union, management goes on “red alert.” It holds “captive audience” meetings to let workers know that a union is not wanted, it directs supervisors to meet “one-on-one” with workers to pressure them and to “predict” that a facility might just close if workers unionize. Even worse, employers freely harass and fire union supporters, even though these and other intimidating actions are illegal under labor law. There just aren’t any employer penalties for breaking the law, so many companies see these tactics as the cost of doing business.
There is no question that current labor law is broken. The Employee Free Choice Act is the means to restore fairness and balance to the system. The measure is quite simple, despite the disinformation campaign being waged by some in the business community.
Under this legislation, if a majority of workers sign up for and support union representation, their employer must recognize that choice. The measure also provides for real penalties against employers who violate the law and sets up the framework for true collective bargaining through first contract mediation and arbitration.
The Employee Free Choice Act does not eliminate elections under existing National Labor Relations Board processes. When 30 percent of workers show their support for a union voice, an election can be held. But the Employee Free Choice Act also gives workers the opportunity for majority signup, when support for union representation is overwhelming. That puts workers back in charge.
Working people want the opportunity to make their own choice about union representation. That’s the promise of the Employee Free Choice Act.
Clark Ruppert, Jr.
President
York Adams County Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO
I can't agree with much of this legislation. A secret ballot is necessary because the employer's contact information of employees is protected by privacy laws. Employees are vendors of their services, and if they are at-will no contract (collectively bargained or otherwise), may be terminated without cause. Corporations are owned by shareholders, who elect directors, who hire managers to operate the business in their best interests. This bill would seem to be a sweeping attempt to change many of these basic principles of American law, and will not pass, even in the Democratic Congress.
It's really easy to win any game where you can write the rules as you play. Non secret ballots are just another way to insure better than average results in a unionization vote. Put a roomful of your co-workers together and ask them if their boss treats them like dogs while the boss is there and see who stands up and says yes. Take the boss out of the room and the response will be completely opposite. Now take that same roomful and ask them if they want a Union to make every labor related decision for them while their co-workers take names as they raise their hands. We might as well hold our state and federal elections the same way then. No need to register or go to polling locations. We can all just raise our hands at work and someone else will call in the results. Seems fair and secure to me.