Op-Ed: Celebrate Labor Day by supporting a new law

http://jta.org/news/article/2009/08/27/1007477/op-ed-celebrate-labor-day-by-supporting-the-employee-free-choice-act

By Sybil Sanchez · August 27, 2009

NEW YORK (JTA) -- This Labor Day, take a moment to remember people like Lupe Hernandez.

When she toured a Jewish family’s apartment in the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, she felt connected to our history as immigrants struggling to make better lives for ourselves and our families. Hernandez is one of the immigrant workers on strike in the 2007 film "Made in LA" struggling to receive a fair wage and stop sweatshop abuse by organizing.

Labor Day might seem like a quaint throwback, but the struggle for workers' rights is still being fought today in our own backyards.

Our community’s relationship to labor is very different today than in yesteryear, but the Jewish obligation to remember our history remains relevant. As Jews, we must respect and support workers’ rights, whether it’s those of our ancestors or today’s immigrants.

While most headlines are focused on health care reform, labor law reform should stay on our agenda -- specifically, the Employee Free Choice Act. This much-needed legislation has three important principles: Workers would more easily be able to join or form a union; employers who break the law in efforts to stop union organizing would face more stringent penalties and workers who have chosen to form a union would have a clear path to an initial collective bargaining agreement with their employer.

Today, 44 percent of newly formed unions are unable to reach initial agreements, a serious problem the current law fails to address.

The majority sign-up route to union recognition provided by the Employee Free Choice Act has a long history and is in widespread use today in the United States and many other countries. But there’s a catch: Under current law, workers can form a union via majority sign-up only if their employer agrees to it — which most employers refuse to do, even when worker support for the union is overwhelming.

FULL story at link.

:toast: