December 12, 2008
President Andrews Interviewed by WRAL
Media focus on Employee Free Choice Act
Cullen Browder of CBS affiliate WRAL in Raleigh, NC interviewed state fed president James Andrews as part of a piece about the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). You can watch the video online.
Business groups opposed to EFCA are rolling out the same arguments they used in the 1930s to try to defeat passage of the National Labor Relations Act, which guarantees workers’ right to form unions. But as James points out – not unlike then – our economy is in the mess it is precisely because business was allowed to do whatever it wanted.
Empowering workers to form unions free of employer intimidation and abuse – which EFCA will do – is exactly what’s needed to restore balance to our economy and grow our middle class again.
Spread the word in your newsletter
Download a sample newsletter article you can use in your own publications to spread the word about why we need the Employee Free Choice Act.
I understand the right to form unions. But, shouldn’t a worker have the right not to join a union. I’ve read too much today about workers being “strong armed” into joining unions.
The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) should be renamed. This Act offers anything but ‘Free Choice’. If it is truly free choice, then a secret ballot should be all it takes to get a union. The reason that unions are opposed to secret ballots, is that it makes it tougher for them to use intimidation and pressure to get their way! Anyone who supports the EFCA is opposing the American way.
EFCA does *not* eliminate employees’ right to a secret ballot election. That assertion is false. Under current law, 30% of employees have the right to call for a secret ballot election. EFCA does not change that.
The Employee Free Choice Act offers workers a choice. The choice is between enduring the lengthy NLRB election process or using majority sign up.
While waiting to hold an NLRB supervised election, the employer can hold dozens of captive audience meetings where it can attack the union without debate, fire union supporters, or threaten employees with closing down if they vote ‘yes’. An NLRB election gives employers time to hire professional union avoidance consultants – high paid lawyers who have made a billion dollar industry out of defeating employees who want to form a union.
With the majority signup option in the Employee Free Choice Act, the National Labor Relations Board can certify the union if a simple majority of all workers sign authorization cards.
Why is that controversial? Right now, anyone can join the Republican Party, the NRA, or the ACLU for that matter by signing a piece of paper saying they want to be a member. Why should it be different for workers who want a union?
To Oscar, there is no law or proposed change in the law that would require workers in North Carolina to join a union. That the Employee Free Choice Act would make fairer the process of how workers who want a union choose to form that union has no bearing on their coworkers who do not want to join.