Message to Senators: Employee Free Choice Act Would Mean Health Care, Pensions for Millions

U.S. senators will get an earful from CWA members next week about the critical need for Employee Free Choice Act, including the fact that the organizing and bargaining rights bill would likely bring health benefits to more than 3.5 million uninsured Americans.

That estimate is based on figures showing that union workers – because of their ability to bargain collectively -- are 28 percent more likely to be covered by employer-paid health plans. The study, by the Institute for America's Future, also predicts that nearly 2.8 million workers would receive employer-paid pensions if the Employee Free Choice Act becomes law.

"It's no coincidence that as employers have trampled on the right of workers to bargain contracts, more Americans are without health care and retirement security," CWA President Larry Cohen said. "That's a vital point we need to make in our phone calls with senators and their staffs next week."

CWA and IBEW members are making the week of May 14 a "week of action" for passing the Employee Free Choice Act. The bill passed overwhelmingly in the House in March and is pending in the Senate.

Cohen and other CWA leaders are hoping that thousands of calls will pour into Capitol Hill from members and their families across the country. Locals have been given a list of 11 senators who are considered swing votes and another 47 senators who have signed on as the bill's co-sponsors.

"We need to persuade the 11 senators who are not yet committed and we want to thank those who have, and make sure that the shameless efforts of the Chamber of Commerce and other business lobbies haven't changed their minds," Cohen said.

The 11 are Democrats Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Ken Salazar of Colorado and Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Republicans Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, Norm Coleman of Minnesota, John Sununu of New Hampshire, John Voinovich of Ohio, Gordon Smith of Oregon and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.

With Verizon's union-busting behavior a focal point of the Employee Free Choice Act fight, CWA is also asking locals to urge state and community leaders to write letters to Verizon chief Ivan Seidenberg in support of workers' bargaining rights.