U.S. Labor Laws Broken: Fired Cabinet Worker: ‘I Was Always Fist-Up Union’

Janet Merkel worried there was a target on her back when she started talking about a union at the Quakermaid kitchen cabinet factory in Hamburg, Pa. She was right. Merkel, her husband and her brother-in-law were among a dozen workers fired during a Steelworkers' organizing drive in 2006.

"I was told by the plant manager that if it came down to getting the union in, he'd chain the door and move the plant," said Merkel, a mother of five.

Vocal union supporter Debbie Saltzman, a single mom with an unblemished record at work, was fired the same day as Merkel, allegedly for taking an unauthorized smoke break. "I handed out (union) authorization cards. I was always fist-up union,'' she said.

For Merkel and Saltzman, the Employee Free Choice Act isn't just another piece of federal legislation. It's personal: They were fired exercising their legal right to have a union. "If we had Employee Free Choice, I would still have my job," Merkel said.