MONDAY, MARCH 16, 2009
Historians support EFCA to restore democracy

The following article was written by Michael Honey, the Haley Professor of Humanities at the University of Washington Tacoma and the author of “ Going Down Jericho Road : The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King’s Last Campaign:”

One hundred historians have declared their support for the Employee Free Choice Act, introduced into Congress on March 10 by Senator Tom Harkin and Rep. George Miller.

The legislation would make it easier for workers to organize unions and harder for employers to evade them. Workers could obtain a union when 50% sign cards authorizing a union. The law would also force employers to respond quickly and bargain in good faith or face increased fines and mandatory, binding arbitration by the National Labor Relations Board.

Why are faculty members, who are so notoriously un-organized, speaking on behalf of unions? There are many reasons, but on one level the reason is simple: democracy depends upon it, and our economy needs it. The last great depression occurred when unions declined to almost nothing in
the 1920s. Republican government cut taxes on the rich and removed many of the regulations of the Progressive era, which in turn allowed bankers and corporations to make sky-high profits. The housing and stock market boomed, and the rich got richer. That led to the crash of 1929.

Because labor was not organized, it had almost no restraining influence on
government, leading to a vast divide between the rich and the working class. Sound familiar?

In 1935, the Wagner Act made it easier for workers to organize, establishing
the right to freedom of association and speech on the job without employer
intimidation or interference. The rise of unions paved the way to the Social
Security Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, and many of the government safety nets we rely upon today.

Because unions gained in strength, workers increased their wages and their
buying power. When the economy came out of its stupor during the rapid
industrialization of World War II, unions became widespread. The result was the rise of the largest middle class in world history. This history favors two arguments about the need for labor law reform today.

Without unions, government will not reflect the needs of the great majority of people who work for a living. Not only will democracy suffer, but wages will stagnate, people cannot afford to buy what they produce, and our economy will suffer.

Those who have jobs need to be able to advocate for themselves. Employers will not voluntarily raise wages, and government will not do very much to make that happen either. Only workers themselves can do that, but to do it, they need to be able to harness their numbers in an organized way.

Employers will say EFCA takes away the workers right to a secret ballot. It
isn't true. If 30% of people in a work place petition for it, they can demand a secret ballot election. The trouble is, employer strategies since the 1980s have turned elections into a nightmare of intimidation, delays, and poor results for workers.

EFCA allows that if 50% petition for a union, it will take effect immediately. The choice of methods belongs to workers, not to the employers, who seem perfectly capable of protecting themselves. Let's face it: Labor laws are written to protect workers.

History shows that we are in a time where worker rights need increased
protection. Unions are clearly not the answer to every problem. But for
capitalism to function in a democratic manner, we need them.
For a list of signers to the historians' petition, and for more information on the Employee Free Choice Act, see the web site: http://LAWCHA.org/tls.php

Michael Honey is Haley Professor of Humanities at the University of Washington Tacoma, and author of "Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King's Last Campaign." 

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"We, the undersigned historians, support the Employee Free Choice Act and urge Congress to enact it."

David Brody University of California-Davis Alice Kessler-Harris Columbia University Michael Honey University of Washington, Tacoma Joseph Hower Georgetown University Bethany Moreton University of Georgia Brian Greenburg Monmouth University Eileen Boris University of California, Santa Barbara James J. Lorence University of Wisconsin; Marathon County Alison Jaggar University of Colorado, Boulder (Philosophy) Michael C. Pierce University of Arkansas Charles A. Zappia San Diego Mesa College Susan Hirsch Loyola University, Chicago Thomas Dublin SUNY Binghamton Kevin Boyle Ohio State University Bruce Cohen Worcester State College Eric Fure-Slocum St. Olaf College John S. Olszowka Mercyhurst College Leon Fink University of Illinois, Chicago Harvey Schwartz San Francisco State University David Montgomery Yale University Peter Cole Western Illinois University Jacquelyn Dowd Hall University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Susan Levine University of Illinois, Chicago John L. Revitte Michigan State University Elliott Gorn Brown University Harvey Kaye University of Wisconsin, Green Bay Deborah Cohen University of Missouri, St. Louis Nancy F. Gabin Purdue University Robert Reutenauer Middlesex Community College Charles Williams University of Washington, Tacoma Peter Rachleff Macalester College Michael Denning Yale University Ellen Schrecker Yeshiva University George Hopkins College of Charleston Joshua B. Freeman City University of New York Ina Clausen University of California

Jacob Remes Duke University Joseph Abel Rice University Matthew Basso University of Utah Daniel A. Graff University of Notre Dame Daniel Clark Oakland University (Michigan) Michael Kazin Georgetown University Roberta Gold Fordham University John Enyeart Bucknell University Alan Derickson Pennsylvania State University Linda K. Kerber University of Iowa Jennifer Klein Yale University Laurie Mercier Washington State University; Vancouver Fraser Ottanelli University of South Florida John P. Lloyd Cal Poly Pomona Leslie S. Rowland University of Maryland, College Park Scott Saul University of California, Berkeley Andrew H. Lee New York University, Bobst Library James N. Gregory University of Washington Landon Storrs University of Houston Theodore Steinberg Case Western Reserve University David Zonderman North Carolina State University Rachel Batch Widener University Alexander Keyssar Harvard University Jose A. Soler University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth Liesl Orenic Dominican University (IL) Gordon K. Mantler Duke University Lizabeth Cohen Harvard University Devra Weber University of California, Riverside Randi Storch State University of New York, Cortland Shannan W. Clark Montclair State University Elizabeth Shermer University of California, Santa Barbara Patricia Cooper University of Kentucky Stanford Jacoby University of California, Los Angeles Steven Attewell University of California, Santa Barbara Dolores Janiewski Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand)

Jennifer Luff University of California, Irvine Dana Frank University of California, Santa Cruz Elizabeth Lamoree University of California, Santa Barbara Cassandra Engeman University of California, Santa Barbara Tobias Higbie University of California, Los Angeles Mary O. Furner University of California, Santa Barbara Lisa Phillips Indiana State University Jack Epstein Ohio University Matthew Bewig University of Florida Michael Robert Bussel University of Oregon Roxanne Newton Mitchell Community College (NC) Kenneth Fones-Wolf West Virginia University Otto Olsen Northern Illinois University Melvyn Dubofsky State University of New York, Binghamton Robert Schaffer Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania Michelle Haberland Georgia Southern University Linda Gordon New York University Moon-Ho Jung University of Washington Jennifer E. Brooks Auburn University Seth Wigderson University of Maine at Augusta Sean Burns University of California, Santa Cruz Darryl Holter University of Southern California Beth English Princeton University Eric Foner Columbia University Robert Zieger University of Florida Mai Ngai Columbia University Charles Bergquist University of Washington Nelson Lichtenstein University of California Santa Barbara Kimberly Phillips William and Mary Nikhil Pal Singh University of Washington Michelle Nacy University of Washington Tacoma Grace Palladino University of Maryland

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