Diverse Groups Get Behind Employee Free Choice

Civil rights and church groups, environmentalists and consumer advocates all are standing strong with workers and unions in the fight to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. More than 99 groups have joined unions and the entire labor movement in working to restore workers' rights.

"There is a fundamental imbalance in the power relationship between those who seek to organize and those who seek to thwart it," said Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. Labor's allies understand what it means to be the underdog, he said, so "we understand the importance of the Employee Free Choice Act. And we know that only in coalition do you have the power to advance a bill that is being distorted in the press."

Henderson and other supporters were part of a news conference that discussed the broad support for the Employee Free Choice Act and reinforced the understanding that restoring workers' rights is critical to the nation's economic recovery.

The Employee Free Choice Act is backed by a bipartisan majority in the House, a majority of U.S. senators and President Barack Obama. A new poll by Hart Research shows that 78 percent of Americans favor legislation that will allow workers to form a union through majority signup and bargain contracts. Only 17 percent of respondents were opposed.

Opposing the bill are the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and others that don't want workers to have the same options that employers now have when it comes to choosing union representation. Bosses currently can decide whether to recognize majority signup or insist on an election. Most force workers into an election process that usually takes months or even years. During that time, management as a rule conducts campaigns to intimidate and harass workers to vote against the union.

"The American people get it," American Rights at Work Executive Director Mary Beth Maxwell said. "They know the current system is not working and it's time to restore some balance."

ARAW Chairman David Bonior, former member of Congress from Michigan, said, "The state of American workers is abysmal. While the middle class is shrinking, we've watched as over the last 20 years the top 10 percent took 90 percent of the income gains in this country." To bridge this gap in income equality, "we must give people a chance to bargain collectively with their employers."