Global Focus on Collective Bargaining Coverage: Employee Free Choice Act is Within Reach

This year is the best opportunity working people have had in years to make the Employee Free Choice Act a reality.

"Imagine a country where the Employee Free Choice Act is the law of the land and millions of workers begin to join unions and help build more bargaining power for all of us," said CWA President Larry Cohen. "That's what we can accomplish in Election 2008."

"We've come so far in this fight to restore workers' rights and are close to achieving our goal. But that means electing more Senators who support bargaining and organizing rights and a President who will lead the fight to make the Employee Free Choice Act the law of the land. And make no mistake, corporations and groups like the Chamber of Commerce are lining up to defeat this bill. So we have our work cut out for us," he said.

CWA political activists have been gearing up for the 2008 elections and already have scored major successes in Kentucky, Virginia, New Jersey and other states by electing a pro-worker governor in Kentucky and representatives to state legislatures in Virginia and New Jersey who support working families.

The plans for 2008 include working with other unions and American Rights at Work in key battleground states to make sure that Senate support for the Employee Free Choice Act is veto-proof.

That means the election of at least eight Senators who support workers' rights and who will fully back the Employee Free Choice Act. With at least 60 votes for the measure in the U.S. Senate, opponents won't be able to filibuster and block final passage as they did last June.

The 2006 congressional elections were the first major turning point in labor's efforts to restore workers' rights.

The election of a Democratic majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate meant a more worker-friendly congressional leadership. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pledged to pass the Employee Free Choice Act and did so, even taking to the House floor to lead the argument for it. The House vote of 241-185 last March showed deep support for restoring workers' rights and the middle class.

In the Senate, there was strong majority support for the measure when it came to the floor last June — 52 votes when counting South Dakota Senator Tim Johnson who now has returned to the Senate. That wasn't enough to end the corporate-backed filibuster but it did send a clear message to candidates running for political office: the labor movement is fighting hard for the Employee Free Choice Act and we expect nothing less from the candidates that working people choose to endorse.

The new president must lead this fight and negotiate passage of the measure through the Senate. CWA and the union movement are working hard for Senate candidates in key battleground states but we still need leadership from the next president to push through vital legislation like the Employee Free Choice Act.

CWA continues to meet with senators and stress how important the Employee Free Choice Act is to working families and rebuilding the middle class.

In a meeting with Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln (see box), Regina Cain, a steward with CWA Local 6507, contrasted conditions at her workplace today — the AT&T Mobility call center in Little Rock — with those under previous management when workers who wanted a union voice were harassed and intimidated. When Cingular, now AT&T, bought the company, workers were able to quickly organize under the company's neutrality and majority card check organizing agreement with CWA.

Ricky Belt, president of CWA Local 6502, met with Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor to deliver a similar message. Belt said that union members throughout the state will continue to send letters, e-mails and phone calls to the offices of both Pryor and Lincoln, stressing the importance of the bill and how labor plans to move forward.

CWA President Cohen, Executive Vice President Jeff Rechenbach and CWA activists are continuing to meet with senators and candidates and their staffs to carry that message.

All four Democratic-Farmer-Labor candidates for the Senate in Minnesota have endorsed the Employee Free Choice Act and 18 Democratic governors have written to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell calling for Senate support for the measure.

All the Democratic candidates for president have voiced their support for the Employee Free Choice Act. None of the Republican candidates responded to CWA's survey of their positions on this and other CWA key issues including health care and trade policy.

For more information on EFCA go to ga.cwa-union.org/efca.