Employee Free Choice
The Politics
Today only 13 percent of all workers, and less than 8 percent of the private-sector workforce, belong to unions—not because they don’t want to join, but because corporate America has made joining a union all but impossible. That’s why a growing, bipartisan coalition is supporting the Employee Free Choice Act, federal legislation that would give workers a free choice and a fair chance to form a union.
The Facts
Most working families are struggling to make ends meet. Since 2001, real wages have declined, benefits have shrunk, and good jobs have become harder to find. At the same time, basic costs—health care, gasoline, and food—have risen dramatically. [CAF]
Workers who belong to unions receive higher wages and better benefits. Wages for union workers are nearly 30 percent higher than for non-union workers ($886 median weekly earnings vs. $691, or a total of $10,140 more a year). [U.S. Department of Labor] Union workers are more than 50 percent more likely to have employer-provided health insurance (79 percent compared with 52 percent of non-union workers), and they are nearly three times more likely to have defined-benefit pensions. [U.S. Department of Labor]
More than half of all U.S. workers—nearly 60 million—say they would join a union right now if they could. [Peter D. Hart poll] Their best opportunity to get ahead is by uniting with co-workers to bargain with employers for better wages and benefits. Working people want that opportunity.
But the current system for forming unions and bargaining with employers is broken. Every day, corporations deny employees the freedom to decide for themselves whether to form unions to bargain for a better life. Corporations routinely intimidate, harass, coerce and illegally fire people who try to organize unions. During a National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) election campaign:
- 34 percent of employers illegally fire at least one worker for union activity.
- 75 percent of employers hire consultants or union-busters to help them fight the union.
- 63 percent of employers force workers to attend one-on-one anti-union interrogation meetings with their own supervisors.
- 54 percent of employers threaten workers in such meetings.
- 57 percent of employers threaten to close the worksite if the union wins the election. [Economic Policy Institute]
The majority sign-up process has proven to work. Companies such as Cingular Wireless, Kaiser Permanente, and DaimlerChrysler have voluntarily let employees choose by majority sign-up whether to have a union—and this process has created less hostility and polarization in the workplace. In addition, 12 states allow certain public and private workers to join unions through the same majority sign-up process that is part of the Employee Free Choice Act. Under these laws, more than half a million workers have joined unions since 2003. [American Rights At Work]
Even after the union wins an election, employers are still able to block a union contract. Forty-four percent of unions newly formed by workers pursuant to the NLRA election process are unable to get management to agree to a union contract. [AFL-CIO]
Americans overwhelmingly support the Employee Free Choice Act. Seventy-two percent of Americans (87 percent of Democrats, 69 percent of Independents, and 48 percent of Republicans) favor the legislation after hearing both sides of the debate. Only 21 percent oppose the legislation. [Hart Research]
The Argument
A majority of America’s workers would join a union if they could, but federal law makes it nearly impossible. Under the current system for recognizing unions, one side—the corporation—has all the power: it controls the information workers receive and routinely poisons the process by intimidating, harassing, coercing, and even firing people who try to organize unions. Penalties against employers who violate the law are so insignificant that they have virtually no effect. The system bears no resemblance to a fair, democratic election.
America’s workers should have the freedom to choose a majority sign-up system. Ever since the Great Depression, federal labor law has provided the option for workers to form a union when a majority has signed authorization cards and those cards are validated. This is a thoroughly American process: a petition. But it is currently the corporation’s choice—not the workers’ choice—whether to follow that process.
Majority sign-up should not be stopped by a minority in Congress. No one doubts that the Employee Free Choice Act is supported by a majority of the House and Senate and that President Obama is eager to sign it. It is not yet law only because slightly more than 40 senators are presently willing to filibuster the measure and frustrate majority rule.
The Right is Wrong
Opponents argue that the Employee Free Choice Act eliminates the “secret-ballot election.” But in fact, both the election and majority sign-up processes are permitted by current law and both would continue to be permitted. The difference is that current law gives employers the right to choose between the two processes while the Act would give the choice to workers. Since it is the workers’ right to organize, they should be free to choose the representation process.
Opponents argue that a “secret-ballot election” is “American” and majority sign-up is not. But in fact, the current NLRA election process does not resemble any candidate or referendum election in America—the rules on campaigning and voting are entirely stacked to benefit management. Majority sign-up is essentially a petition, a concept that’s so American it’s in the U.S. Constitution.
Opponents argue that the Act’s arbitration provisions are unfair. In fact, the rules of arbitration give management and labor equal rights. And arbitration is so common that corporations require it of consumers in nearly all pre-printed form contracts.
Progressive Solutions
The Employee Free Choice Act would help reform our broken labor law system by solving three egregious problems in the NLRA:
- Currently, employers can choose whether to recognize the employees’ union through a majority sign-up or an NLRA election process. Employers who want to fight their workers universally select the election process—because it’s been turned into a burlesque of legal and illegal intimidation. The solution: allow the workers to choose which recognition process to use.
- Once a union wins recognition, employers use a wide variety of tactics to avoid reaching a contract. Nearly half the time, management fails to agree to a contract with a newly recognized union. The solution: require mediation and binding arbitration when, after a period of months, the employer and workers cannot agree on a first contract.
- Employers routinely violate the NLRA because penalties for breaking the law are insignificant. The solution: strengthen penalties against companies that coerce or intimidate employees.
