Support the Employee Free Choice Act

The Employee Free Choice Act would put the choice of whether to form a union back in the hands of the workers through a majority sign-in as an alternative to the present company dominated system.

Today companies (take Wal-Mart as an example) routinely intimidate, harass, coerce and fire people who try to form unions and current labor law as written by Republicans is powerless to stop them. The penalties, if even found guilty, are so light that companies merely consider them as another cost of doing business.

Even at companies where the workers have persevered in forming a union the companies stymie, stall and delay bargaining or reaching a first contract with virtual impunity.

The Employee Free Choice Act guarantees that companies can't drag their feet on a first contract. The Act provides for mediation or binding arbitration in such instances.

Several large, national companies such as AT&T and Kaiser Permanente have used majority sign-up successfully for years. The Act also levels the playing field by putting real penalties on companies that violate the law during organizing and contract campaigns.

It is important to remember that union workers earn 28% (about $200 a week or $10,000 a year) more than non-organized workers; union members are 52% more likely to have employer provided insurance; 77% of union members have defined-benefit pension plans through their jobs, compared with only 20% of workers who do not have a union.

Working families and older workers nearing retirement age are stretched and challenged as never before. Wages are dropping, jobs are becoming more scarce, health care costs are rising and pensions are disappearing. For the first time in generations, people are very worried that their children will be worse off than they are.

Communities with strong unions have higher standards of living for everybody. Support the Employee Free Choice Act, and help rebuild America's middle class.