Resolution: 71A-09-02
Approved: June 22, 2009
Our campaign to win passage of the Employee Free Choice Act has come down to the wire.
We have an overwhelming majority in the House of Representatives, with bi-partisan support in that chamber, and a president who will sign the Employee Free Choice Act with pride. We also have majority support for the legislation in the Senate. However, we need 60 senators to bring the bill to the floor of the Senate for a vote. That vote will be along strict party lines, and there remain some “wobbly” Democrats.
Working with the labor movement – AFL-CIO unions, Change to Win unions, the National Education Association – and the hundreds of organizations that have stood up to support Employee Free Choice, we need to make the final push to get this measure passed by Congress and sent to President Obama for his promised signature.
This is it. This is our time.
Over many, many months, we have proven the case for the Employee Free Choice Act. We have made the connection between strong bargaining rights and a strong middle class.
The public overwhelmingly supports real bargaining and organizing rights for workers. Nobel-prize winning economists, big and small business leaders, and public policy analysts all agree that Employee Free Choice is the key to turning around our struggling economy. Strong majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate, not to mention President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, are standing up for working families and Employee Free Choice.
Not surprisingly, some corporate interests like the Chamber of Commerce do not quite see it this way. The Chamber of Commerce alone has spent $200 million trying to fight Employee Free Choice. Its latest tactic is to host “fly-in days” for corporate executive officers whom they take to meetings with their senators to lobby against the Act. For example, the Chamber of Commerce just recently flew in 300 executives to meet with California Senator Dianne Feinstein.
Clearly, the Wall Street and financial interests that have run our economy into the ground cannot be allowed to control our economic future. Greed and overreaching by Wall Street and investment banks caused our economic crisis and the extreme income inequality that has been rampant in this country for several decades.
The result is an economy in which people do not have health care, quality jobs, or the ability to move forward confidently into the future. That is why bargaining rights and the Employee Free Choice Act top our agenda for working families.
Eighty-eight percent of American workers do not have bargaining rights. This means workers do not have a seat at the table with their employers and do not have the ability to find solutions to workplace and economic problems. As a direct result, working families in the United States lag far behind working families in the world’s other industrial democracies, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which tracks economic, environmental and social conditions in 30 developed countries.
The Employee Free Choice Act serves as the foundation upon which we will address all the critical challenges facing workers and their families today. Without bargaining rights, our nation trails the other advanced economies on every social and economic indicator.
Health care. The United States now spends more than 17 percent of our gross domestic product on health care – twice that of other industrial democracies. Yet 46 million Americans have no health insurance. U.S. businesses that do provide coverage for employees face a competitive disadvantage compared to other U.S. employers who offer inadequate or no health benefits. Similarly, U.S. corporations that provide health coverage incur costs that foreign corporations located in nations with national health policies do not bear, raising the cost of U.S. goods and services relative to our foreign competitors.
Pensions and retirement security. For working families, the percentage of income replaced by Social Security and private pensions is lower in the United States than in any other industrial nation with the exception of Mexico.
Jobs and fair trade. In the United States, our trade practices have been based on an imbalanced notion of “free trade” that ignores the impact on working people. In the world’s other industrial democracies, workers’ interests carry weight in setting national trade policy.
Bargaining rights. Trade union representation has declined to 12 percent of the U.S. labor force, and only seven percent of the private sector. The United States has the worst record of any democracy in protecting workers’ rights – with the exception of Colombia.
The Employee Free Choice Act ties all these issues together. That is why we must take this opportunity, push harder than ever, and pass this critical legislation.
Our representatives and senators must be on notice that we are watching their votes and that we will hold them accountable for their vote on Employee Free Choice. It is time that our elected officials declare “which side they’re on.”
Resolved: CWA members must do everything possible to ensure that Congress passes the Employee Free Choice Act and sends it to President Obama for his signature. CWA members must be a massive presence on Capitol Hill at our June 24 Lobby Day. CWA members and locals must continue to contact their senators and representatives and their staffs, scheduling meetings in district offices over the next several weeks to press for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. CWA members must send a deluge of personal letters to members of Congress to make sure that our voices are heard on Employee Free Choice.
Resolved: We will focus our efforts on Democratic Senators this week and every week until passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, since we need all 60 to vote for cloture to get a floor vote. Particularly in key Senate states, we will make sure that every steward is engaged in mobilizing like never before. CWA members will make sure that our elected officials know they will be held accountable for their vote on the Employee Free Choice Act.