Errol Horhein: Employee Free Choice Act Press Conference, 02/28/07

Run time: 03:11 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzNEMmzgnTs   Posted on YouTube: February 28, 2007 By YouTube Member: AFLCIONow Views on YouTube: 1639   Posted on DU: March 23, 2007 By DU Member: Omaha Steve Views on DU: 439

 

It’s Time to Restore Workers’ Freedom to Form Unions


America’s working people are struggling to make ends meet these days and our middle class is disappearing. The best opportunity working people have to get ahead economically is by uniting to bargain with their employers for better wages and benefits. Recent research has shown that some 60 million U.S. workers would join a union if they could.


But the current system for forming unions and bargaining is broken. Every day, corporations deny workers the freedom to decide for themselves whether to form unions to bargain for a better life. They routinely intimidate, harass, coerce and even fire workers who try to form unions and bargain for economic well-being.


The Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 800), supported by a bipartisan coalition in Congress, would level the playing field for workers and employers and help rebuild America’s middle class. It would restore workers’ freedom to choose a union by:


* Establishing stronger penalties for violation of employee rights when workers seek to form a union and during first-contract negotiations.
* Providing mediation and arbitration for first-contract disputes.
* Allowing employees to form unions by signing cards authorizing union representation.