YES: WITHOUT LABOR UNIONS, WHO SPEAKS FOR THE WORKER?

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2008/032008/03302008/366480

Date published: 3/30/2008

WASHINGTON--
Let's just put the skunk on the table. America's economy is in real trouble. We didn't get into this economic crisis overnight. We need real long-term solutions to our deep-rooted economic problems--not the status quo and a $300 Band-Aid.

More than ever, we're living our daily lives in an economy that puts corporate profits over real people. You can see it in our lopsided trade policies, the outrageous expense of health care, mounting personal debt, and in our crumbling bridges, roads, and schools. Thanks to Bushonomics, this is the America the next president will inherit.

How did we get to this point? Before the 1970s, our economy was growing strong, which meant rising wages for the vast majority of America's workers. More money in our pockets meant more spending capacity--and so we spent. That spending encouraged companies to invest more, and a cycle of prosperity was born.

It was good while it lasted, but for the last three decades workers' productivity has continued to go up, up, and away--while wages have stagnated. There are many reasons, including the deregulation of the airline, telecommunications, and trucking industries, which drove wages down for those workers. Unfair international trade policies (like NAFTA) also played a significant role, providing incentives to send jobs overseas.

But that's not the whole story. Another key reason workers aren't seeing wages that match their productivity is the sustained attack against workers' freedom to form unions to bargain for better deals.

The Employee Free Choice Act is a piece of national legislation that would level the playing field for America's workers--mitigating corporate greed and repairing the broken labor-law system that has stripped away the freedom to form unions and bargain collectively.

FULL 2 page story at link.

[tankbob]

1. Not the best answer

It would allow for much intimidation on people choosing not to unionize. This is still a free country and all elections should be using a closed ballot. Labor movements would be more effective if not coerced.

P.S. Without Unions, the worker speaks for himself.

[DainBramaged]

2. The worker who speaks for himself speaks on the outside

when the door is slammed in his face because someone is willing to work on the cheap.

[Omaha Steve]

3. The intimidation is what current law lets the employer do

http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/voiceatwork/efca/

It’s Time to Restore Workers’ Freedom to Form Unions


America’s working people are struggling to make ends meet these days and our middle class is disappearing. The best opportunity working people have to get ahead economically is by uniting to bargain with their employers for better wages and benefits. Recent research has shown that some 60 million U.S. workers would join a union if they could: http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/voiceatwork/efca/57million.cfm


But the current system for forming unions and bargaining is broken. Every day, corporations deny workers the freedom to decide for themselves whether to form unions to bargain for a better life. They routinely intimidate, harass, coerce and even fire workers who try to form unions and bargain for economic well-being.


The Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 800, S. 1041), supported by a bipartisan coalition in Congress, would level the playing field for workers and employers and help rebuild America’s middle class. It would restore workers’ freedom to choose a union 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 authorizing union representation.


http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/voiceatwork/efca/57million.cfm

Some 60 million U.S. 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 try to gain a voice on the job by forming a union, employers routinely respond with intimidation, harassment and retaliation.

During union election campaigns, management routinely coerces employees to convince them not to choose union representation. According to a survey of National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election campaigns in 1998 and 1999 by Cornell University scholar Kate Bronfenbrenner, private-sector employers illegally fire employees for union activity in at least 25 percent of all efforts to join a union.

Employees not fired fear losing their jobs if they support union representation. According to the Bronfenbrenner survey, management forces employees to attend group anti-union presentations in 92 percent of all union campaigns. Brent Garren, senior associate counsel for UNITE HERE, told a House subcommittee this past September that 79 percent of workers agreed workers are “very” or “somewhat” likely to be fired for trying to form a union.

The Employee Free Choice Act would reform the nation’s basic labor laws by requiring employers to recognize a union after a majority of workers sign cards authorizing union representation. It also would provide mediation and arbitration for first-contract disputes and establish stronger penalties for violation of the rights of workers seeking to form unions or negotiate first contracts. The act had bipartisan support of 44 senators and 215 representatives in the 109th Congress, and the AFL-CIO expects even greater support in the 110th Congress.

* Learn more about the union difference in wages, benefits and more.
* Communities benefit when workers have a voice on the job.
* See why so many workers say, "I'll never work nonunion again."
* Read stories about workers fighting to form unions.

Thoughts?