Recently, the San Francisco Democratic Party voted unanimously to support the Employee Free Choice Act, the most important legislative proposal affecting workers' rights in almost seventy years. Scheduled for a vote in Congress sometime in the early summer, the Employee Free Choice Act will enable working people to bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions.
Giving working people the freedom to form unions and bargain collectively is crucial to America's economic recovery. Union members are 52% more likely to have job-provided health care and earn 28% more than non-union workers. Nearly sixty million people who don't have unions say they would join one, but too few will have the opportunity with the current corporate-dominated system. Many companies routinely intimidate, harass and even fire people who try to form unions-- and current labor law is powerless to stop them.
The Employee Free Choice Act Will:
..- Guarantee that if a majority of workers want a union, they can have one, allowing them to form unions by signing cards authorizing union representation.
- Provide mediation and arbitration for first contract disputes
..- Establish stronger penalties for violation of employee rights when workers seek to form a union and during first contract negotiations.
Though the Employee Free Choice Act has some bi-partisan backing in Congress, including support from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a pledge from President Obama to sign it into law, anti-union groups are working hard to defeat it.
Time is running out - Take Action Today!
Write or email or call your U.S. senators and your Members of the House of Representatives in Washington D.C. today and ask them to support the Employee Free Choice Act. Tell them that, with the current economic crisis, it is more important than ever that we invest in the future of the middle class by empowering workers and enabling them to unite with co-workers to bargain for better wages and working conditions.
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