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by Judd Legum, Faiz Shakir, Nico Pitney
Amanda Terkel and Payson Schwin

WORKERS' RIGHTS	A Free Choice
UNDER THE RADAR	Go Beyond The Headlines
THINK FAST	Coffee and Donuts Not Included
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WORKERS' RIGHTS
A Free Choice

A critical step to helping poor and middle class Americans get ahead is to remove barriers that prevent employees from joining unions. Workers represented by unions earn 28 percent more than nonunion workers, are 62 percent more likely to have medical insurance through their jobs, and are four-and-a-half times as likely to have guaranteed pensions. The most important legislative step to smashing these barriers is passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which AFL-CIO President John Sweeney last month called the labor movement's "top priority." According to work site surveys, 42 million non-union employees in America would like to have representation at work but don't. A 2005 survey found "53 percent of nonunion workers - that's more than 50 million people - want to join a union, if given the choice." But according to Human Rights Watch, "Legal obstacles tilt the playing field so steeply against freedom of association that the United States is in violation of international human rights standards for workers." Clearly, the system is broken. Congress needs to fix it. (Tell your members of Congress to support the Employee Free Choice Act.)

LABOR'S PAINS: With labor under sustained assault, the "share of American workers carrying union cards has plunged from over 20 percent in 1980 to under 13 percent in 2005, and almost half of those are government employees." In a report on the recent boom in corporate profits, economists at Goldman Sachs wrote plainly, “The most important contributor to higher profit margins over the past five years has been a decline in labor’s share of national income." Cornell University researcher Kate Bronfenbrenner writes, "at least 5 percent of workers involved in unionization campaigns are fired, which is both quite illegal and quite routine: Companies would rather pay the nominal fines than pay their workers higher wages and lose the absolute control they hold over the work lives of their employees." Today's labor movement faces union-busting law firms and consulting agencies which are increasingly enlisted by union-wary employers to keep labor from organizing. Today, the vast majority of union members -- 84 percent -- live in only 12 states, leaving workers with little organized power in much of the country.

EMPLOYEES NEED A FREE CHOICE: The Employee Free Choice Act addresses three critical problems. First, under the current "secret ballot" system, employees who want to form a union face a lengthy and divisive process which exposes workers to harassment, intimidation, threats and firings. Every year, over 20,000 U.S. workers are illegally fired, demoted, laid off, suspended without pay, or denied work by their employers as a result of union activity. The EFCA establishes a system called card-check organizing, under which employees are able to establish a union simply by having a majority of workers sign written forms ("cards") authorizing union representation. A second problem: even after unions are formed, management often frustrates the will of their employees by refusing to bargain or by bargaining in bad faith. Employers face "virtually no legal deterrent" from avoiding bargaining, and if management and employees reach a stalemate, current law "allows management to impose working conditions unilaterally." More than a year after voting for union representation, "workers are unable to negotiate initial collective bargaining agreements 32 percent of the time." The EFCA allows employees to request federal mediation services if no agreement on a first contract has been reached after 90 days of bargaining, and refers the dispute to binding arbitration if the mediation is not successful. Finally, current labor law is "feebly enforced" and "filled with loopholes," as Human Rights Watch has documented. The EFCA increases penalties for illegal firing of employees and other anti-union activity, and gives organizers the right to seek court orders to stop employers from engaging in certain prohibited activity.

THE WORKPLACE DEMOCRACY MYTH: The primary conservative message against card-check organizing is that it threatens workplace democracy. "Democratic elections are a fundamental right in America," a right-wing Heritage Foundation memo states, and "the drive to replace private balloting with out-in-the-open 'card check' organizing...threatens workers' right to decide for themselves whether to join a union." Rep. Howard McKeon (R-CA), the outgoing chairman of the Education and Workforce Committee, says of card-check organizing, "Nothing could be more un-American," since it strips workers "of the same protections we insist they have when they vote for their representatives to Congress." This is deeply misleading. First, union workers are still guaranteed the right to choose whether to unionize. Indeed, whereas an election system requires that only a majority of voting employees approve a union, the card-check system requires that a majority of all employees approve. Second, the election system already tilts the playing field sharply, since management alone controls the power to "deprive employees of their livelihood and to control their pay, hours, and working conditions." A University of Illinois at Chicago study found that "during unionization elections, 30 percent of employers fire pro-union workers and 49 percent threaten to close work sites if workers unionize." Employers frequently delay elections by "months and even years," and management has "almost unlimited and mandatory access to employees, while union supporters have almost none." In a federal election, this would be equivalent to one candidate controlling all the local print and broadcast media outlets. As Sen. Kennedy writes, the current election process has "become coercive and hostile, rather than free and fair."

THE FRAUD MYTH: The Heritage Foundation claims that card-check organizing would "open the door to massive potential fraud," and that "only their integrity prevents organizers from submitting forgeries." This is false. Authorization forms are public, must be signed and dated by employees, and typically include "other necessary information to identify the voter and verify the results, such as name, address, and Social Security number." This information can easily be cross-checked against employee databases by management. Moreover, respected community leaders or professional arbitrators "are typically designated as neutral third parties to monitor the agreement and to verify that authorization forms have been signed by a true majority."

THE FIGHT HAS BEGUN: Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) earlier this month called the EFCA a "high priority," and said she wanted a vote on the measure by spring. The legislation is a top agenda item for Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the incoming chairmen of the Senate and House labor committees, and is backed by a strong bipartisan coalition, including moderates like the Blue Dog Coalition. It is also part of the 100 Days Agenda proposed by the Center for American Progress Action Fund. But congressional conservatives, aided by powerful business interests, are "gearing up for a fight." Rep. Charlie Norwood (R-GA) has announced he will advance the "Secret Ballot Protection Act," a bill that is "unlikely to gain any traction" in Congress, but which "business lobbyists say...gives lawmakers a vehicle to talk about the value of secret-ballot elections." National Journal reports, "A coalition of business associations aimed at fighting [card-check organizing] also is gathering members," led by the powerful U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Even if the bill makes it through the House, where it had over 200 sponsors in the 109th Congress, "it could face a filibuster in the Senate or a presidential veto." Join the fight now.