Religious Leaders: Employee Free Choice Strengthens Families, Communities

http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/06/15/religious-leaders-employee-free-choice-strengthens-families-communities/

Religious Leaders: Employee Free Choice Strengthens Families, Communities

by James Parks, Jun 15, 2007



Religious leaders have been deeply involved in workers’ efforts to form unions and have seen firsthand how poorly workers are treated. Now, some 110 religious leaders across the country have signed a letter urging the U.S. Senate to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

The letter points out that nearly all faiths support the value of work and fair treatment of workers:

America’s faith traditions are nearly unanimous in support of the right of workers to organize, and by using sacred text and tradition, our faith communities have developed social statements supporting the freedom of workers, too vulnerable to systemic injustices in the workplace, to organize and collectively bargain. The Employee Free Choice Act…makes real the principle that the free choice about whether to form unions should belong to workers.

Kim Bobo, executive director of Interfaith Worker Justice, says the Employee Free Choice Act “is the most significant piece of legislation in this decade.”



It empowers the working people in this country. The religious community wants to end poverty. Worker organization enables workers to gain a fair share of the prosperity generated in the work place. Without such organization, ending poverty will never be a reality.

The Employee Free Choice Act (S. 1041) currently is in the Senate, where a vote is expected next week. The U.S. House passed the historic legislation March 1. If enacted, the Employee Free Choice Act would enable workers to decide how they want to choose a union. The act would give workers the option to use majority sign-up, which is much faster than the management-controlled representation election process and leaves less time for employers to harass and intimidate workers to discourage them from joining unions.

FULL story at link.