Business Week, September 22, 2008, 12:01AM EST



Business Week, September 22, 2008, 12:01AM EST

Employee Free Choice Act: Labor vs. Business

Essential to the Future of America's Middle Class

The right to freely choose to join or form a union will ensure economic progress for the people who are the backbone of the U.S. economy

By George Miller, Representative (D-CA), co-author of the Employee Free Choice Act.

When it comes to our economic priorities, there is nothing more important than ensuring a strong middle class. The middle class is the backbone of our economy and our democracy.

Unfortunately, in recent years, the middle-class life has become increasingly difficult to maintain. Workers' wages have stagnated as the cost of everything from milk to college tuition has skyrocketed. The staples of a middle-class life—a fair wage, access to health care, a sound retirement—are getting squeezed. The percentage of national income going to workers' wages is at its lowest level since 1929, while the percentage of our nation's wealth going to corporate profits is at its highest since the 1940s.

There is one way to turn these trends around: By giving workers the right to freely choose to join or form a union.

Union Organizers Threatened

Consider the numbers. Union workers' wages are 30% higher than nonunion workers'. Union workers are 62% more likely to have employer-provided health care and four times as likely to have a pension. These workers achieve better living standards by exercising their freedom of association and joining together to bargain for something better. Yet, while 57 million Americans say they would join a union tomorrow if they could, only 15.7 million have. The reason is simple: The current system for organizing a union is broken, undemocratic, and rife with intimidation.

A quarter of all employers in organizing drives illegally fire at least one worker for union activity. More than half of employers threaten to close the business if the union wins the election. And 92% of employers force employees to attend mandatory anti-union meetings during campaigns.

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The Employee Free Choice Act would fix this broken system so workers can freely exercise their right to organize. It would do three things. First, it would allow workers to use a majority sign-up process to form their union, without their employer vetoing that choice. Second, it would increase penalties on employers who violate workers' rights. Third, it would ensure that, once workers form a union, collective bargaining leads to a first contract—not delay and more union busting.

Ballot Issue

Unfortunately, opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act are spreading vicious lies about the bill. These myths must be corrected. Their biggest whopper? That the bill would "eliminate the secret ballot."

Presumably, they are referring to the secret ballot at the end of the National Labor Relations Board election process. In that process, management has total access to workers and can browbeat them anytime, anywhere in the workplace. But pro-union workers can only distribute literature on break time in break rooms. And union organizers are almost invariably barred from ever setting foot on the employer's property.

If these advantages aren't enough, an employer can fire a pro-union worker to make its point, or threaten to close the business down if workers vote the wrong way, without facing more than a slap on the wrist. At the end of this process, the NLRB holds an election on the employer's premises.

This is not any democracy that most Americans would recognize as such. Yet this is the system that opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act want to preserve. Another process exists. If an employer allows it, as some major companies already do, workers can avoid the conflict-ridden NLRB process and form a union by signing cards, the same way you might form a civic association. When a majority has signed up, the employer recognizes the union.

Unfortunately, current law allows employers to veto the use of this freer majority sign-up process—and they do. The Employee Free Choice Act would simply take this veto power away from the employer and restore the democratic principle of free choice to the workplace.

Workers' Choice

The bill still provides for an NLRB election process, triggered when 30% of the workers petition for one—the same as current law. But a majority of workers could opt for the less divisive majority sign-up process. And instead of getting harassed, demoted, or fired, they would get a union. The bill would rightly leave that choice up to workers, not the employer.

Another myth is that the Employee Free Choice Act would encourage intimidation. Documented intimidation by unions during organizing campaigns is scant. Unlike employers, a union organizer can't fire you, cut your pay, or deny you a promotion. So it's not surprising that, in a study of a more than 60-year period, an employer group could only list 113 cases that they claim involved union deception or coercion in obtaining authorization-card signatures. Contrast that to a recent analysis that found that, if you're an employee actively trying to organize your co-workers, you have a 1-in-5 chance of getting fired by your employer for a legal activity.

The freedom of association is a fundamental human right and a key ingredient to a strong middle class. Current law does not adequately protect workers' freedom of association. The Employee Free Choice Act will change that, and give workers a chance to balance the scales a little bit their way, for a change.

Miller is chairman of the House Education & Labor Committee and the House Democratic Policy Committee. He is a leading advocate in Congress on education, labor, the economy, and the environment. He has represented the Seventh District of California in the East Bay of San Francisco since 1975.

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