Unions Turn Up Heat on Capitol Hill for EFCA

As the U.S. Senate began debating the Employee Free Choice Act, more than 4,000 union activists turned out in 96-degree heat Tuesday for a Capitol Hill rally to demand that lawmakers pass the bill and begin restoring America's embattled middle class.

The boisterous, sign-waving crowd included several hundred red-shirted CWA members and staff along with others from AFSCME, UAW, IBEW, AFT, Teamsters and virtually every other national union.

CWA President Larry Cohen asked the entire crowd – as he has asked all CWA members and their families – to call each of their two senators to either thank them for supporting the bill or urge them to do so. A vote in the Senate could come as early as June 25.

"Every senator needs to know how serious we are about this bill," Cohen said. "They need to know that tens of millions of union members and workers who want to be union members want the Employee Free Choice Act. The entire labor movement is watching this vote," Cohen said.

The Employee Free Choice Act, which would restore workers' badly eroded rights to organize unions and bargain collectively, was passed by a wide margin in the U.S. House in March. 

The Capitol Hill rally was one of more than 100 rallies across the country this week supporting the bill. Meanwhile, working Americans so far have generated 50,000 telephone calls to the Senate, 156,000 faxes and e-mails, and 220,000 postcards, including 120,000 delivered to the Senate on rally day, the AFL-CIO said. .

Despite all of labor's energy and support from a majority of senators, Republican leaders are determined to block the Employee Free Choice Act with a filibuster. This tactic would prevent an actual vote on EFCA by requiring at least 60 senators first to vote to stop the filibuster before the actual bill could be taken up.

But Cohen and AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said the massive and ongoing campaign by labor will ensure that the bill is a top priority for the next Congress in January 2009 – when a new president will also take office. Should the Employee Free Choice Act beat the odds in the Senate now, President Bush has promised to veto it.

Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) told the Washington crowd that that bill is badly needed because, "The middle class is under attack in this country and the wrong side is winning."

Other political leaders who spoke at the rally included Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), who introduced the bill in the Senate, presidential candidates Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), who sponsored the bill in the House, along with many labor leaders.

Three workers who have struggled for union representation told their stories of employers' fear and intimidation tactics to keep unions out of the workplace.

"Obviously, the system is broken," said injured food factory worker Lee Mabry, who has fought for a union for seven years to improve worker safety. "Now more than ever, we need Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act to protect our rights to form a union so that we can improve our working conditions."