International Human Rights Day - Actions Renew Fight For Employee Free Choice Act

Locals across the country marked International Human Rights Day on Dec. 10 with a colorful reminder that human rights include workers' rights, starting with the right to form a union.

At worksites from coast to coast, CWA members received flyers showing flags of more than 70 countries from Bahrain to Mongolia, from Thailand to South Africa — all nations where the law provides a fair way for workers to organize unions without facing campaigns of fear and intimidation by employers.

The most notable country missing from the list? The United States. Which is why CWA used International Human Rights Day to intensify the fight to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

"Four weeks ago, we won an historic election, replacing eight years of failed policies and disregard for the needs of working families with a once-in-a-generation leader," CWA President Larry Cohen said. "Now we have the ability to restore the middle class and put our country back on track for working families, but we won't succeed without hard work in the weeks and months to come."

Other AFL-CIO unions, as well as Change to Win unions, joined CWA for the day of leafleting, one of many Employee Free Choice actions members can join in the near future. The flyer, reprinted at right, urges people to call their senators to ask them to support the bill, which would restore organizing and collective bargaining rights that employers, lawmakers and courts have eroded for years.

"We need to keep the Employee Free Choice Act at the top of the agenda by generating thousands of calls to the U.S. Senate," Cohen said, urging the phone calls to continue.

The U.S. House passed the Employee Free Choice Act in 2007 and the bill is not expected to have any trouble in the 111th Congress. The showdown will be in the U.S. Senate, where Republicans used a filibuster earlier this year to keep the bill from coming to the floor for a vote.

In the Nov. 4 elections, Democrats increased their majority in the Senate but are still one to two votes short of the 60 votes needed to end a filibuster. Although Republican Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania supports the bill, its passage will require at least one more Republican vote.

While the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other anti-union organizations are pouring tens of millions of dollars into campaigns to defeat the Employee Free Choice Act, Cohen reminded CWA members that unions have something better than money. 

"We have you," he said. "We have tens of thousands of members and their families who are ready to roll up their sleeves and put on their sneakers and get to work. On Nov. 4, we saw what millions of ordinary Americans coming together can accomplish. And as long as we carry that spirit and determination forward, it doesn't matter how deep the Chamber's pockets are."

To download flyer, go to ga.cwa-union.org/source and click on flag artwork.