Senate to Hold Hearing on Employee Free Choice Act

A Senate Committee will hear testimony March 27 from workers and labor law experts on the need to restore workers’ freedom to form unions to bargain for better wages and benefits.

“It’s no secret that a union contract is the best economic uplift program for working people in this country,” said Errol Hohrein, a worker at Front Range Energy who was fired after he and co-workers formed a union. He said the bill would restore the choice to bargain for a better life to people like him who have been denied it. Hohrein is scheduled to testify before the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

The Employee Free Choice Act would stiffen penalties against employers that illegally retaliate against or even fire workers who choose to form a union, and it would allow a neutral party to determine a first contract if the company and employees cannot reach an agreement after 90 days of bargaining.

The bill also would recognize workers’ freedom to form unions when a majority of employees sign forms designating the union as their bargaining representative. This “card-check” process is permitted under current law, but only if the employer agrees.

The Employee Free Choice Act was passed by the House (H.R. 800) earlier this month. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education & Labor Committee and a sponsor of the bill, said it would reform a broken system in which “employers frequently intimidate, harass, reassign or even fire workers who support the formation of a union.”

Most employers force workers to undergo an election administered by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), “where the deck is stacked heavily against pro-union workers,” Miller said.

APWU President William Burrus praised the legislation. “A long-term campaign will be required to turn it into law,” he said, noting that Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has pledged to block the bill in the Senate, and the White House has threatened to veto the bill if it reaches the president’s desk.

“USPS employees enjoy a great sense of security because of the union’s role in the workplace,” he said. “We must help extend those protections to our brothers and sisters in the private sector if we want to improve conditions for our families and friends and for our nation’s middle-class.”

In a statement following the House vote on March 1, Miller said, “Giving workers the ability to bargain for better wages and benefits is a key part of strengthening America’s middle class. Union workers earn 30 percent more, on average, than do non-union workers, and union workers are much more likely to have healthcare, pensions, and more generous paid time off.”