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Thousands Rally for ‘Employee Free Choice’ on Capitol Hill

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APWU Web News Article #009-09, Feb. 5, 2009

APWU officers and staff joined thousands of other union activists
at a rally on Capitol Hill Feb. 4, to encourage Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which would give American workers greater freedom to form unions.

They brought along hundreds of thousands of signatures on petitions from workers around the country who are fighting to pass the legislation.

"Passing an Employee Free Choice Act is one of the top legislative priorities of the labor movement and the APWU," said Myke Reid, Director of the union's Legislative and Political Department. "The EFCA would put real teeth in the laws that guarantee workers' rights to unionize."

The EFCA would stiffen penalties for harassment, intimidation, and other illegal tactics employers often use to prevent workers from choosing union representation in the workplace.

Sara Steffens spoke about being fired for union activity. Union activists delivered hundreds of thousands of signatures on petitions from workers around the country who are fighting to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. United Steelworkers Union President Leo Gerard and Sen. Tom Harkin show Solidarity in support of the Employee Free Choice Act.

EFCA would also recognize workers’ freedom to form unions when a majority of employees sign forms designating a union as their bargaining representative. This “card-check” process is permitted under current law, but only if the employer agrees. Under these procedures, most employers force workers to hold elections, but then use the period between the card collection and vote to intimidate workers and harass or fire union organizers.

Several speakers at the rally recounted how their employers interfered in union elections and thwarted their efforts to bargain for better wages, benefits, and working conditions.

Sara Steffens, an award-winning reporter at the Contra Costa Times in Walnut Creek, CA, told the crowd that she was fired after helping form a union at the newspaper. She said she was surprised by the level of intimidation and the misleading campaign waged by her employer, who she never expected to be so hostile to workers’ attempts to form a union.

“I read the National Labor Relations Act and thought, ‘What a great country we live in.’ I stood by my conviction that they wouldn’t retaliate,” Steffens said. “I thought, ‘That’s against the law.’ I thought it couldn’t happen to me, because I had been a good employee.”

“A lot of the people who organize unions are people who love what they do and are really committed to it,” she added. “It’s important that workers feel like they can step up and be part of decisions in the workplace.”

The House passed the Employee Free Choice Act in 2007 with a solid majority, but a vote to pass it in the Senate was blocked by anti-union conservatives. As a result, the bill must be reintroduced in the 111th Congress.

The outlook for passing the Employee Free Choice Act improved considerably with the recent election of President Barack Obama and more Senate and House members who support it. If Congress passes an Employee Free Choice Act, President Obama has pledged to sign it into law.

Rep. George Miller (D-CA) and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), who co-sponsored the Employee Free Choice Act in Congress in 2007, also spoke at the rally.

"The right to organize is a basic human right, and we’re not going to let anyone take it away. Everyone benefits from unions. When people are organized, everyone starts doing better,” Sen. Harkin said.

Rep. Miller told the rally, " Decisions about the workplace belong to the worker…that’s the promise of America. It’s foolish to think we will rebuild this country without the participation of the American worker”.

[more EFCA news]

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