The Employee Free Choice Act

Abstract

FOCUS □ LABOURLAWREFORMANDTHE ORGANISING AGENDA The Employee Free Choice Act Kellythe form Beringer, second a union largest a at veteran Resurrection hospital nurse, Health is system trying Care, to in form a unionat Resurrection HealthCare, the second largest hospital system in Chicago.Forthepastfiveyears,management at Resurrection has conducteda viciousanti-union campaignto stop its 10,000 employeesfrom freely joining thenationwide stateandmunicipal workers' union,AFSCME. Beringer knowsalltoowellwhatitfeelsliketo be on thereceiving end of an anti-union campaign .Shedescribes herexperience thisway: "Weare madeto feelliketraitors and disloyal whenwe talkaboutforming our union.Union newsletters and legislation updates have been removed from breakroomsand torndownfrom ourlockerrooms.We areconstantly toldwe are free tochoose,buthowisthis freedom ofchoice, whenwordslike'disloyal', 'extortionist' and 'negative 'areused to describe thoseofus who have madea pro-union choice? What messagedoesthis convey toother workers? How cansomeonepossiblymakea freechoiceunderanyofthesecircumstances ?" Since2003,Resurrection has settled 15unfair labourpractice charges filed byworkers withtheNational LaborRelations Board(NLRB) alleging interrogation, harassment, interference in organising activities andtheprohibition ofthedistribution of unionliterature. Yet thehealthcare workers there still haveno union. Undercurrent US labourlaw,workers seeking to forma unionmustgo through a protracted NLRBballot procedure,unless theiremployer agreestoa majority sign-up process, often called 'card-check recognition'. Undermajority sign-up, if51 percent ofworkers signcardsauthorising a representative to bargainon theirbehalf,they havea union.Butemployers suchas Resurrection aren'tlikely to agreeto themajority verification processbecauseitdoesn'tgivemanagement time to harassand intimidate workersas does the lengthy ballotprocess.As Beringer and hercoworkers know,theNLRBballotprocessisn'tfair: becausewhenworkers feartheymight lose their jobsifthey votetojoina union- orbelieveother Sen. Edward Kennedy speaking alongside AFL-CI0 President John Sweeney at Employee Free Choice Act rally, June 2007.©Bill Burke liesmanagement tellstofrighten them - there's a good chancethey won'tbacktheunion. IftheproposedEmployee FreeChoiceActwas law,employeessuchas Beringer couldhavethe optionof choosingto join a unionthrough the ballotprocessorthrough majority sign-up. Employee Free Choice Act The EmployeeFree Choice Act would enable workingpeople to bargainforbetterbenefits, wages and workingconditionsby restoring workers'freedomto choose for themselves whether tojoina union.Specifically, itwould: ■ Removecurrent obstaclesforemployees who wantcollective bargaining; H Guaranteethatworkers who can choose collectivebargaining are able to achievea contract; ■ Allowemployees toform unionsbysigning cardsauthorising unionrepresentation. The last point is criticalfor employeeslike Beringerand her co-workers.Currently, an employer candemanda company-controlled electionandworkers wouldhaveno sayinthematter. TheEmployee FreeChoiceActwouldrequire the NLRBto certify a bargaining representative withoutmandating an election ifa majority ofthebargaining unitemployees signedsuchcardsin the majority sign-up. Mostcritically, thechoicewould be up totheworkers, notmanagement. In short, theEmployeeFreeChoiceActwould guaranteeworkerstheirright to choose a bargainingrepresentative eitherthroughmajority sign-up ora ballotelection process.Itwouldthus givethechoiceofwhether tojoina uniontothe workers themselves insteadoftocompanies. Majority sign-upis not new. Since the US NationalLaborRelations Act(NLRA)was originallyenactedin 1935,ithasbeenlegalforworkersto form a unionwhena majority ofemployees in a bargaining unitsignscards indicating theirintent to be represented by theunionfor bargaining a contract withtheemployer to gain better wagesand benefits. US EmployerHarassment: OvertheTop In itsfirst AnnualSurvey ofViolations ofTrade Union Rights,the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) highlighted Resurrection's federallabour law violations.Those violations include'interfering with,and coercingemployees in the exercise of the rightsguaranteed' undertheNLRA.ButResurrection's intimidation and harassment of workersis not an isolated incidentin US workplaces.CornellUniversity scholarKate Bronfenbrenner studiedhundreds of organising campaignsand herfindings show thatamongprivate-sector employers: The Employee Free ChoiceAct would givethe choice ofwhether tojoin a unionto the workers themselves instead ofto companies RICHARD TRUMKA is Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CI0 in Washington Page 3 Volume 16Issue 2 2009 INTERNATIONAL union rights I giant Working front are Commerce Manufacturers Association the corporations bombarding Chamber and groups airwaves National through the and the US of of front groupsthe National Association of Manufacturers and the US Chamberof Commerceand giantcorporations are bombarding the airwaves ■ 78 percent forceemployees to attend one-onone meetings against theunionwiththeir ownsupervisors; ■ 51 percent threaten toclose theplantifthe unionwinstheNLRBelection; ■ 75 percent hireconsultants orunion-busters tohelpthemfight unionorganising drives; ■ Similarly, University ofIllinois-Chicago professorsChirag Mehtaand NikTheodorefound, intheir study ofNLRBunionrepresentation elections intheChicagoarea,thatin91 percentoforganising campaigns, employers forced workers to attend one-on-one, antiunionmeetings withsupervisors. But it gets worse. A studyreleasedin March showedthateverytimeworkers tryto exercise theirfreedom to forma union,there'sa better thanone-in-five chancea worker willbe illegally firedas a result.The studyby the Centerfor Economic andPolicy Research (CEPR)documents that inmorethanone-quarter ofunioncampaigns since2001,workers facedillegalfiring. By 2007, nearly 30 percent ofunionorganising campaigns resulted in at leastone illegalfiring. The study finds that pro-union workers werefired in26percentofunionelectioncampaigns between2001 and2007.The26percent rateisup from about16 percent inthelasthalfofthe1990s. The independent, non-partisan, international humanrights...