Why do workers need the Employee Free Choice Act?

Take out a piece of paper and write down your answers to the following questions. Correct answers and more information will be found in the extended entry.

1. What percent of private-sector employers actively oppose workers’ efforts to join a union?
[a.] 50 percent
[b.] 75 percent
[c.] 90+ percent

2. What percent of private-sector employers requires workers to attend anti-union meetings?
[a.] 50 percent
[b.] 75 percent
[c.] 92 percent

3. What percent of private-sector employers uses supervisors to urge individual employees to vote against a union?
[a.] 40 percent
[b.] 60 percent
[c.] 78 percent

4. It is legal for an employer to call mandatory meetings on company time during union organizing campaigns to present its anti-union case.
[a.] True
[b.] False

5. A worker can be disciplined or even fired for asking a question about employment practices during such a meeting.
[a.] True
[b.] False

6. If a worker is fired during a union organizing drive, how long, on average, does it take the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and a federal appeals court to hear the case and compel the company to rehire the worker?
[a.] 6 months
[b.] 14 months
[c.] 3 years

Answers:

1 - c
2 - c
3 - c
4 - a
5 - a : in many circumstances. Specific factual situations can affect legality.
6 - c

Because employers erect these obstacles, workers need a federal labor law that ensures workers have a fair chance to win a voice on the job.

The Employee Free Choice Act will:
- Allow employees to choose freely whether to form unions when a majority signs union authorization cards.
- Provide mediation and arbitration for first-contract disputes.
- Establish stronger penalties for violation of employee rights when workers seek to form a union and during first-contract negotiations.

Actions you can take:
- Call your U.S. senators at 202.224.3121 and U.S. representatives at 202.225.3121 and ask them to co-sponsor the EFCA, S. 1925 and H.R. 3619. Or send an email to them.
- Send Bush a message asking him to change his mind and support workers’ freedom to form unions.
- Thank Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) for being one of the first lawmakers to co-sponsor the EFCA.

[Sources: Kate Bronfenbrenner, Uneasy Terrain: The Impact of Capital Mobility on Workers, Wages, and Union Organizing, Cornell University, Sept. 6, 2000; National Labor Relations Act; U.S. Department of Labor and Commerce; Commission on the Future of Worker-Management Relations Fact Finding Report, May, 1994; America@Work, AFLCIO, June/July, 2004]