On March 1, the day that the Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 800 - http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/voiceatwork/efca/) passed the House (241-185), I put in my Billy Bragg CD and sang along with “There is Power in a Union.” Cheesy, perhaps, but workers won’t be singing until the bill becomes law and therein lies it’s most treacherous journey as it must pass the Senate and get signed into law by President Bush. We all know that’s not going to happen thanks to Vice President Dick Cheney who said in a recent speech to the National Association of Manufacturers, a group that has seen most of their jobs and industry shipped elsewhere, that the President will veto the bill anyway. If that happens, the only recourse is for a 2/3rds majority override of the veto by Congress.
I first became aware of the bill through Lisa May, an educator friend of mine who told me about it. She’s had plenty of union experience and experience with the Teacher’s Union in Florida. I, however, work in an industry that has no real union representation or, seemingly, a glimmer of hope for one (welcome to the world of IT).
She tells me labor unions were given legal status in the U.S. in 1935 by The Wagner Act also known as the National Labor Relations Act.
“Once unions were legalized workers started forming and joining unions like crazy,” High School History/Social Studies teacher Lisa May says. “But in 1955 The Taft-Hartley bill was passed, which made organizing unions more difficult.
“There used to be something called card check union organizing,” she continues. “If a majority signed the card the union was in. Taft-Hartley created what became known as a campaign period where the workers would sign a card saying they’re interested in a union but they would have to go through a campaign period. Managers would put them through union busting meetings – workers were required to go to these meetings and during this campaign time unions were not allowed to be on company ground. It was intimidating to workers and made it difficult for workers to join because of the tricks employers would do.” Just as a side note, it was congressional Republicans that passed Taft-Hartley (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft-hartley_act) with a majority override of Democratic President Harry Truman’s veto of the bill. Could irony play a hand in getting the EFCA passed with a predominant Democratic Congress? My digits are crossed that the Dems will show some chutzpah and really fight for this one.
The EFCA seeks to undo the Taft-Hartley Act and was created by a bi-partisan committee consisting of Senators Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Reps. George Miller (D-Calif.) and Peter King (R-N.Y.). If it becomes law, the EFCA will make it much easier for workers to form or join unions without fear of coercion from their employers and places stronger penalties on employers who violate fair labor practices, among other things.
“American workers have no idea how much the unions do for them. The [Republican] congress tried to get rid of overtime pay – they were trying to reclassify workers as salary workers to avoid paying overtime,” May explains. “The AFL-CIO was the only group fighting against them.”
I notice the propaganda against the EFCA from labor lawyers (union busters) and otherwise (Fox News “reporters”) grows louder. Richard Hankins, a feisty Atlanta labor lawyer wrote an opinion piece in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution not 24 hours after the bill passed the House. He claims the bill will have “unintended devastating effects on the workers the unions claim to protect” and, oh my God what if Wal-Mart were to experience unionization of their thousands of underpaid, no-benefit employees – “One can easily imagine than an employer such as the retail giant Wal-Mart — a prime target of today's unions — might choose the temporary inconvenience of a lockout over permitting an arbitrator to topple the first domino that could lead to a nationwide loss of control.” All hands on deck – Wal-Mart declares war on America’s working class…
Too bad Hankins wasn’t in the room while workers relayed their tales of harassment, job termination, threats of plants closing, intimidation and physical assault by employers and their lackeys to keep them from forming or joining a union during the five hour debate on the House floor prior to the vote.
Not since the National Labor Relations Act passed 70 years ago has there been much labor reform in favor of worker rights. John Sweeney, President of the AFL-CIO states, “Because of today’s vote, the future looks a little brighter to all Americans who have watched corporations celebrate record profits, but have themselves been shut out of the party, left with stagnant wages and facing soaring costs. A union card is the single best ticket into the middle-class and, thanks to the Employee Free Choice Act, working people may finally have the chance to be part of a union.”
And I bet Billy Bragg is waiting in the wings to see just how much we Americans are willing to divert our attention from Britney Spears or “American Idol” and write a Congressman or Rep to tell them how much we need this bill to pass.
“Money speaks for money, the Devil for his own
Who comes to speak for the skin and the bone?
What a comfort for the widow, a light to the child
There is power in a Union” --Billy Bragg
