Capitol Hill Forum and Events Nationwide Boost Employee Free Choice Act

The Employee Free Choice Act is the best, first step to reinvigorate the U.S. labor movement and rebuild the now-diminished American Dream for millions of working families, speakers at a Capitol Hill forum sponsored by the Economic Policy Institute said Thursday.

"When people talk about 'good jobs' they act as if they came down from the sky," said Beth Shulman, author of "The Betrayal of Work: How Low-Wage Jobs Fail 30 Million Americans and Their Families. "They weren't always good jobs. They became that way because of unionization."

Yale economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, professors and researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard and the University of California joined Shulman and EPI staff for the second annual forum, part of EPI's "Agenda for Shared Prosperity."

"A rising tide of inequality threatens the foundations of a system built on fundamental fairness," EPI said. "Millions of families cannot, despite all their work, attain the necessary means for basic self-sufficiency. Meanwhile prospects for the next generation are dimming: In 2000, the average young high school-educated worker started out earning $5,000 less (adjusted for inflation) than those who entered the labor force 30 years ago."

Papers presented by the forum speakers and more information about EPI's ongoing Agenda for Shared Prosperity is available online at www.epinet.org.

The forum fell during a week of media events, lobbying efforts and other activities being staged by CWA and other unions across the country to help lawmakers and all Americans understand the Employee Free Choice Act and why it's so critical.

Interviewed Thursday on the nationally syndicated Ed Schultz radio show, CWA President Larry Cohen explained how grossly today's labor laws favor employers at the expense of workers and America's shrinking middle-class.

"Now it's up to management — whatever they want to deal out," Cohen said. "They want to eliminate pensions, they're gone. They want to eliminate health care. It's gone. They want to outsource your job. It's gone."

After ending the interview, Schultz urged his listeners to pay attention to the bill as it progresses in Congress and said, "This is going to draw the battle lines of who's for the American worker and who isn't."