Biden, Harkin, Solis Stand Up for Employee Free Choice

Vice President Biden shows his support for Employee Free Choice.

Before heading off for Lobby Day, CWA members got a terrific send-off from Vice President Joe Biden, Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis.

Biden said the Obama administration is committed to giving workers the bargaining power we need to rebuild the middle class.

That idea "is not anti-business. It isn't anti-corporate. It isn't anti-anything," Biden said. "It's pro making sure that people who have a stake in the game and a contribution to make are able to sit at the table. You can't do that if you can't get to be organized. We need to restore some balance to this system," he said.

Harkin, who is leading the Employee Free Choice campaign in the Senate asked, "Why should people have to crawl across broken glass and go through a kind of boot-camp hell in order to join a perfectly legal organization? So our goal is to restore some measure of balance and fairness to the organizing process." He pledged to do everything possible to make the Employee Free Choice Act law this summer.

At the Rayburn House Office building, "Best House Speaker Ever" Nancy Pelosi tells CWAers that "we will win real health care reform."

Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis reaffirmed President Obama's support for the Employee Free Choice Act, stressing that the administration believes 100 percent that "in order to rebuild the middle class, we need to restore fairness and that's why we need the Employee Free Choice Act."