Think Progress

by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Satyam Khanna, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Ali Frick, and Ryan Powers

A Conservative Assault On The Workforce

Half of all workers would join a union if they could. But as director of the Center for American Progress Action Fund's American Worker Project David Madland writes, "Existing laws make joining a union a Herculean task that few are able to undertake." Indeed, just 8 percent of workers in private industry are union members today, down from just over 30 percent after World War II. The decline in union membership paralleled with a decline in real wages, retirement benefits, and quality of health care. To ensure that workers who wish to organize are able to do so, the House passed the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) in March 2007 with bipartisan support. In the Senate, however, a group of 48 conservatives successfully blocked the measure with a filibuster threat three months later. As the next Congress approaches, conservatives have renewed their campaign against the EFCA. Across the nation, right-wing pundits and politicians are using hyperbolic language to mischaracterize the legislation and paint the EFCA's supporters as anti-worker and anti-business.

AN ASSAULT ON THE WORK FORCE: In Feburary 2007, Vice President Cheney, characterized the EFCA as an "attempt to short-circuit the rights of workers." Since then, conservative rhetoric has grown more shrill. On MSNBC yesterday, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) said, "I can't think of a more insidious bill in my time in the United States Senate." He falsely claimed that the EFCA would "do away with secret ballot elections in union elections." The anti-worker Employee Freedom Action Committee is running ads claiming, "Union bosses have new scheme that makes it easier for them to harass and intimidate workers into paying costly union dues." The right-wing Labor Relations Institute, Inc. is selling "EFCA Toolkits" that explain how to "inoculate every employee and every new hire against unionization." Both Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) characterized the EFCA as "un-American," while Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) said that under the EFCA, "unions would be able to browbeat workers" into organizing. Conservative outlets like the Weekly Standard and the National Review are painting the EFCA's supporters as anti-business, claiming that unionization lowers productivity and suggesting the EFCA would hinder employers' ability to compete in the marketplace. Steven J. Law, general counsel for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, explained conservatives' fears, saying, "In 2007, it was almost an artificial exercise that no one figured would pass. ... Now all of a sudden there is a realization that there may be a president in the White House who would sign it."

THE TRUTH ABOUT EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE: Despite conservatives' claims to the contrary, the EFCA preserves the secret ballot election process established by the National Labor Relations Board. The law simply guarantees that workers also have the option to form a union through a "card-check" system in which a union would be recognized if a majority of workers signed a petition testifying to their desire to organize. Under current law, workers can only form a union via the card-check system if their employer agrees to allow it. Otherwise, the employer can insist on a union secret ballot election. Unfortunately, as Madland notes, "Employers legally can force workers to attend anti-union meetings, including 'one-on-one conversations' with supervisors" and "workers often are pressured by employers to reveal their private preferences for the union." "This takes the 'secret' out of the 'secret ballot,'" Madland writes. Even more disturbing is that in "25 percent of organizing campaigns, private-sector employers illegally fire workers because they want to form a union" and "even after workers successfully form a union, in one-third of the instances, employers do not negotiate a contract." The EFCA would strengthen penalties for such labor law violations and prevent employers from delaying first-contract negotiations. While conservatives suggest that the EFCA card-check system is "anti-business," "in a recent survey of employers who had used majority sign-up agreements, a majority reported that the agreements resulted in improved relations with the union, enabling management to achieve other bargaining or business goals."

THE UNION DIFFERENCE: The importance of unions to the American worker cannot be understated. Union workers earn 30 percent higher wages than nonunion workers. For women and people of color, union membership improves wages even more. As union membership has declined, so too have real wages. Meanwhile, top business executives earned "344 times the salary of the average American worker in 2007." As Madland explained in the Washington Post, income inequality "is now at the level it was in the 1920s, when unionization rates were also below 10 percent." Furthermore, when health care costs continue to rise, "workers in unions...are 63 percent more likely to have employer-provided health insurance" than nonunion workers. Union workers' health insurance coverage is "far more comprehensive than that of nonunion workers" and "[u]nion workers pay 18 percent less in health care deductibles and a smaller share of costs for family coverage." Finally, when union workers retire, they are more likely to have "a guaranteed, defined benefit pension." 72 percent of union workers have such retirement benefits, "compared to only 15% of nonunion workers." "Throughout our history, when unions are strong, wages go up, health care coverage improves and pensions are strengthened," notes Change to Win.

"Western donors in Belgium promised on Wednesday to spend about $4.5 billion to rebuild Georgia, whose economy and infrastructure were badly damaged by this summer's war with Russia."

THINK PROGRESS: Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT): The world is just "jealous" because "we're so powerful and strong."

WONK ROOM: Sen. John Sununu (R-NH) misrepresents his own health care bill: "I wouldn't discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions."

YGLESIAS: Gotta get away from Iraq.

COUNTDOWN TO CRAWFORD: How many citizens have tried to arrest Karl Rove?

CALIFORNIA: Fifty-two percent of voters say they will reject a ban on gay marriage, but "the margin is closing."

MASSACHUSETTS: To help close a budget gap, courts "have promised to cut $33 million through tougher restrictions on travel, a hiring freeze, and other cost-saving measures."

NEW YORK: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg "has begun to alienate some of his fiercest supporters" in seeking a third term.

"I genuinely did not recall making the statement. ... I actually was trying to work to keep the crowd as respectful as possible."
-- Rep. Robin Hayes (R-NC), 10/21/08, denying he said that "liberals hate real Americans."

VERSUS

"One more time, I did not deny what I said but the context in which it was presented to us, Larry, was that I hated liberals."
-- Hayes, 10/21/08

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