WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2009
Washington supports Employee Free Choice Act

The Employee Free Choice Act is federal legislation that would enable working people to bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions by restoring workers’ freedom to choose for themselves whether to join a union. It would:

• Establish stronger penalties for violation of employee rights when workers seek to form a union and during first-contract negotiations;

• Provide mediation and arbitration for first-contract disputes; and

• Allow employees to decide whether to form unions by signing cards authorizing union representation or through ballot elections.

In 2007, the Employee Free Choice Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives, 241-185. Although it also was supported by a majority in the U.S. Senate, it was procedurally blocked from a vote by Republicans in the minority.

The momentum for passing the EFCA in 2009 is growing every day. It is supported by President-Elect Barack Obama and a bipartisan majority in both houses of Congress. It has also gained broad backing from environmental groups and other organizations. 

Among elected officials in Washington state, support for the Employee Free Choice Act is particularly strong. The legislation's co-sponsors included U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, and U.S. Reps. Jay Inslee, Rick Larsen, Brian Baird, Norm Dicks, Jim McDermott, and Adam Smith.

Support is also strong among Washington's state lawmakers. Gov. Chris Gregoire was among 16 governors who wrote U.S. Senate leaders in 2007 in support of the Employee Free Choice Act and urging a fair vote. The following state legislators signed a letter of support last year for the legislation:

STATE SENATORS: Darlene Fairley, Karen Keiser, Derek Kilmer, Adam Kline, Jeanne Kohl-Welles, and Rodney Tom

STATE REPRESENTATIVES: Sherry Appleton, Tom Campbell, Maralyn Chase, Frank Chopp, Eileen Cody, Steve Conway, Mary Lou Dickerson, Hans Dunshee, Mark Ericks, Dennis Flannigan, Tami Green, Phyllis Kenney, Bob Hasegawa, Sam Hunt, Chris Hurst, Steve Kirby, John Lovick, Joe McDermott, Mark Miloscia, Jim Moeller, Dawn Morrell, Timm Ormsby, Mike Sells, Geoff Simpson, Chris Strow, Brian Sullivan, Kevin VanDeWege, Brendan Williams, and Alex Wood 

When the Employee Free Choice Act is re-introduced before the new Congress next year, the Washington State Labor Council will again push for its passage. Part of that campaign will be demonstrating its broad support. Community and religious leaders and local elected officials are all urged to sign a letter of support for the bill.

Why we need the Employee Free Choice Act

Today, CEOs get contracts that protect their wages and benefits. But some deny their employees the same opportunity. Although U.S. and international laws are supposed to protect workers' freedom to belong to unions, employers routinely harass, intimidate, coerce and even fire workers struggling to gain a union so they can bargain for better lives. And U.S. labor law is powerless to stop them. Employees are on an uneven playing field from the first moment they begin exploring whether they want to form a union, and the will of the majority often is crushed by brutal management tactics.

Cornell University scholar Kate Bronfenbrenner studied hundreds of organizing campaigns and found that:

• Ninety-two percent of private-sector employers, when faced with employees who want to join together in a union, force employees to attend closed-door meetings to hear anti-union propaganda; 80 percent require supervisors to attend training sessions on attacking unions; and 78 percent require that supervisors deliver anti-union messages to workers they oversee.

• Seventy-five percent hire outside consultants to run anti-union campaigns, often based on mass psychology and distorting the law.

• Half of employers threaten to shut down partially or totally if employees join together in a union.

• In 25 percent of organizing campaigns, private-sector employers illegally fire workers because they want to form a union.

• Even after workers successfully form a union, in one-third of the instances, employers do not negotiate a contract.

Learn more about the EFCA at the AFL-CIO website.

^{Copyright © 2009 --  Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO}