Leading Economists Say Employee Free Choice is Key to Economic Growth

More than three dozen of the nation's leading economists signed on to a public statement of support for the Employee Free Choice Act, stressing that the right to join a union and bargain collectively is essential to rebuilding the economy.

The statement was published in the Feb. 25 Washington Post. Signers include two Nobel Prize winners and economists from Harvard, Princeton and other top U.S. universities.

James K. Galbraith of the University of Texas said "unions are a proven ally of progress, not only in politics but also in economics: unionized workforces promote technical change and productivity growth because they make it possible to distribute more fairly and less brutally the costs of change."

The statement notes the "unusual and unhealthy" situation in which hourly compensation for U.S. workers has stagnated even as their productivity has soared.

"Indeed, from 2000 to 2007, the income of the median working-age household fell by $2,000 — an unprecedented decline. In that time, virtually all of the nation's economic growth went to a small number of wealthy Americans. An important reason for the shift from broadly-shared prosperity to growing inequality is the erosion of workers' ability to form unions and bargain collectively," the economists said.

While polls indicate that millions of Americans want the chance to form a union, "the election process overseen by the National Labor Relations Board has become drawn out and acrimonious, with management campaigning fiercely to deter unionization. Union sympathizers are routinely threatened or even fired, and they have little effective recourse under the law. Even when workers overcome this pressure and vote for a union, they are unable to obtain contracts one-third of the time due to management resistance," the statement says.

The remedy, the economists said, is the Employee Free Choice Act. "A rising tide lifts all boats only when labor and management bargain on relatively equal terms. In recent decades, most bargaining power has resided with management.  The current recession will further weaken the ability of workers to bargain individually.   More than ever, workers will need to act together.

"As economists, we believe this is a critically important step in rebuilding our economy and strengthening our democracy by enhancing the voice of working people in the workplace."

Read more about the statement and the economists who signed it at www.epi.org.