(Photo: Peering into obscurity, where does one circle end and the other begin? You tell me.)

A couple of days ago, the right-wing wonks at the inaptly monickered “Center for Union Facts”, an arch-conservative national front group fighting tooth and nail to put down America’s workers and remove any and all union protections that enable America’s middle class to organize for a better life, took me to task for supporting the Employee Free Choice Act. Me, a modest, little Chicago blogger. When the national opposition sees fit to criticize the little guy on the merits of the argument (and I’m not the only little guy to get the treatment by far, for one, read Prison Ship’s post on the same topic), that’s pretty stunning evidence that the argument holds water in my book.

Today, the scallywags over at CUL (er, I mean CUF) are having a cow that I’ve been helping to organize my fellow bloggers about the Employee Free Choice Act. They honed in on a quote from Bernie O’Hare, a blogger who supports the Act on his Lehigh Valley Ramblings Blog:

“He discloses he’s doing this for the AFL-CIO”.

And then CUF goes on to say (ok, regular readers, pull out your chuckle bags here):

“Why was Chicago Carless hiding this from his readers?”

OK, kids, let’s review. Seven Days at Minimum Wage? Employee Free Choice Act blogged about in February? Last year’s Chicago big-box wage debate? Can you say ACORN? AFL-CIO? Anyone out there in Chicago not know that I find local organizing for employee empowerment to be the bees knees, and the AFL-CIO to be one of the most important workers’ rights organizations in America?

I didn’t think so.

You’re a little late to the party, oh muckraking CUFfers, but that’s OK. On and off the dime, I have helped out America’s Labor movement on the blogosphere and will continue to do so as long as I have a pulpit. And if anyone comes to me and asks me to participate in an outreach project, it’s because my reputation as a committed Progressive precedes me, not because I’m shilling.

Speaking of shilling, exactly who is paying your bills, dear CUFfers? Hmm?

Does anyone else hear crickets right now, or is it just me? If you do, that’s because Rick Berman, CUF head honcho and lobbyist for the alcohol and tobacco industries (can you see where this is headed?), refuses to disclose the source of CUF funds.

it’s a typical right-wing strategy: accuse the opposition of doing exactly what you’re doing yourself.

And that, folks, is as ironic a punch line as you’ll likely ever read on Carless.

Update, May 29, 2007:

A big shout out to our friends over at the so-called “Center for Union Facts” for being irked enough about my calling them out on the falsehoods about the Employee Free Choice Act that they choose to disseminate–they’re a right-wing front group masquerading as a workers’ rights organization, you know that, right?–that they linked to this post on Chicago Carless. I say. You can’t pay for coverage like that! Thanks, guys!

# # #

(May 28, 2007) Now that I’m back to labor blogging, some of you may be wondering why I care so much of late about the Employee Free Choice Act. It’s not that I march in lockstep with my fellow Progressives across the country. I’ve seen many friends and colleagues get treated unfairly when it comes to labor-management issues and in the line of work I’m in, I’ve heard far too many horror stories. I happen to think it’s a damned good piece of legislation and the country’s best hope of saving our dying middle class. Here’s why…

In a Nutshell
The Employee Free Choice Act is widely considered to be the most important piece of labor legislation in America since the National Labor Relations (Wagner) Act of 1935 and enjoys strong bipartisan support. However, opponents of the Act are out there disseminating misinformation about its elements in order to kill it and keep America’s workers from exercising what is supposed to be their legal right to come together to form unions and bargain for better wages, benefits, and working conditions.

Why the Employee Free Choice Act is Needed
The American middle class is quickly disappearing. Millions of workers increasingly struggle through long days for low wages and meager benefits. More than half of U.S. workers–60 million of them–say they would join a union right now if they could. That’s because a union card is one of the best anti-poverty instruments in America: on average, union workers earn 30% more than their non-unionized counterparts, are 62% more likely to have employer-provided health coverage, and are an astounding 400% more likely to have pensions.

But it’s more and more difficult for American workers to form unions to bargain for a better livelihood. On paper, the Wagner Act gives workers the right to form unions and collectively bargain. In practice, however, myriad loopholes and laughable penalties make it easy for companies to actively–and illegally–discriminate against workers seeking to exercise their federal labor rights.

According to national labor data, workers are illegally fired in one-quarter of all union organizing campaigns, including 1 in 5 active union supporters. More than 75% of companies force workers to attend one-on-one anti-union interviews with their supervisors. Half of all companies threaten to close the plant if a union is authorized. And one-third of companies take advantage of procedural loopholes–in many cases for years–in order to delay ever reaching a first contract.

Penalties for illegal firings and intimidation are ineffective and out of date. Financial penalties are so low, most companies simply pay them as a regular cost of doing business. And even for illegal firings, judicial remedies can be as hollow as simply requiring an employer to post a notice on a bulletin board.

When faced with threats like these, under the current system no American worker has a protected way to make a free, unfettered choice when it comes to forming a union.

What the Employee Free Choice Act Does
The Employee Free Choice Act will help bolster the middle class in America by by making it easier for working people to form unions and bargain for better wages, benefits, and working conditions. It does three things to level the playing field between employees and employers:

1. It strengthens financial penalties for companies that illegally coerce or intimidate employees in an effort to prevent them from forming a union;

2. It brings in a neutral third party to settle a contract when a company and a newly certified union cannot agree on a contract after 90 days;

3. It establishes majority sign-up, meaning that if a majority of employees sign union authorization cards validated by the National Labor Relations Board, the company must recognize the union.

With these three provisions in place, workers wishing to form unions and bargain for a better livelihood will be effectively shielded from much of the coercion, intimidation, and foot-dragging that thousands of companies engage in each year in an effort to unfairly deprive their employees of their freedom to form unions.

Falsehoods and the Truth About the Employee Free Choice Act
Some opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act–including several front organizations for business interests masquerading as workers’ rights groups such as the so-called “Center for Union Facts” and the “National Right to Work Committee”–claim the Act would eliminate the existing secret-ballot system for certifying a new union–an alleged slap in the face to democracy–and open employees up to potential intimidation by union organizers to sign authorization cards. That’s just not true.

Under the Employee Free Choice Act, workers are free to choose either majority sign-up or the existing secret-ballot system to authorize a new union. In fact, the same choice exists today, except right now it’s management who gets to decide–and it’s management who’s in charge of the voting process. When the very people who may have threatened to fire you or close your place of business for organizing a union are the same ones in control of the authorization vote, that ceases to be a fair, uncoerced vote.

Moreover, new unions depend on the freely given support of workers in order to become authorized. Organizers engaging in intimidation would be detrimental to gaining that support. The record shows such union coercion rarely happens. Since the Wagner Act’s inception, there have been only 42 verified cases of union coercion in the signing of authorization forms. Yet in 2005 alone, there were more than 31,000 verified cases of illegal firings and other forms of illegal discrimination perpetrated by companies against workers seeking to exercise their federal right to organize to seek a better life. That’s a ratio of more than 30,000 to 1.

In reality, the Employee Free Choice Act puts the choice about how to authorize a union squarely in the hands of workers, where it belongs, and protects workers from the current, nonstop onslaught of illegal intimidation by anti-union companies.

What to Do
I and many other blogger around the country are concerned about the falsehoods being disseminated about the Employee Free Choice Act. A good way to fight back is to contact your local senators and tell them to support the Act’s passage. You can use this on-line petition created by the AFL-CIO to be sent directly to your senators (based on the address you enter). You can also call you local senators in Washington and tell them to support the Act. You can find your senators’ office phone numbers on the U.S. Senate contact page.

Finally, for a very thorough look into the Employee Free Choice Act, an enormous amount of information–including daily news updates regarding Senatorial support–can be found on the AFL-CIO’s comprehensive Employee Free Choice Act page.

As I scribed earlier, I would watch for workers rights to be major issues in Election 2008. The next presidential election is gearing up to be won–or lost–on issues other than terrorism: issues such as the ability for working Americans to live a good life, be well-paid for their work, and retire with honor.

And that will make a hell of a change from 2004.

Back in February, I scribed about the Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 800, S. 1041), a bill aimed at making it easier for American workers to come together to form unions. Among other things, the Employee Free Choice Act would:

–strengthen legal penalties against union-busting employers;

–require mediation and arbitration to help employers and their newly organizing employees reach a first contract in a reasonable period of time; and

–allow workers to form a union through a “majority sign-up,” a simple process in which workers present signed authorization cards as demonstration of their choice to belong to a union.

Right now the Act is under debate in the Senate, and although it enjoys a bipartisan coalition of support, it’s still not expected to pass. That’s a shame, because the current system for forming unions and bargaining is broken. According to the the AFL-CIO:

“Every day, corporations deny workers the freedom to decide for themselves whether to form unions to bargain for a better life. They routinely intimidate, harass, coerce and even fire workers who try to form unions and bargain for economic well-being.”

That’s a shameful state of affairs. Still, even if stopped in the Senate, watch for the Employee Free Choice Act to become a hot issue during Election 2008. For one thing, the AFL-CIO is putting its weight behind the issue to get the word out that the Act is a win-win situation for American workers and businesses (check out AFL-CIO’s detailed Employee Free Choice Act information page).

Another labor organization giving its full support to the bill is American Rights at Work (they have their own Employee Free Choice Act page here). Moreover, the organization holds that opponents of the Act, with strong ties to Wall Street, are seeking to further weaken the right of American workers to form unions by promulgating misleading and falsely alarming information regarding EFCA. According to executive director Mary Beth Maxwell:

“Pluck a few feathers and you’ll discover that the true motivation of Employee Free Choice Act detractors is eradicating unions—not defending workers and democracy as they claim. The newly formed Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW), a front-group created and financed by deep-pocketed industry groups, claims to represent ‘rank-and-file workers from across the country’ who oppose the bill. But no workers are named as members on the coalition’s website among the deep-pocketed anti-union employer groups. Among CDW’s members are groups led by conservative strategist Grover Norquist, who has publicly proclaimed his mission to ‘crush labor unions as a political entity’ and ultimately, ‘break the unions’.”

I find that type of bait-and-switch lobbying truly frightening, how about you? Speaking of you, visit the above websites and decide for yourself whether the Employee Free Choice Act is the best cure for what ails labor organizing in America. Personally, I think it’s a great start.

(Photo: It’s not just a barista thing; you will understand. Credit: Starbucks Union.)

Today, a momentary hop back onto the labor movement bandwagon to talk about the Employee Free Choice Act, and why you should care about it.

The Act is an attempt by Congress to seal the holes in the 72-year-old National Labor Relations/Wagner Act, a progressive 1935 law aimed at giving workers the right to collectively bargain by forming unions. The latter law hasn’t worked in years. The new Democratic Congress is seeking to change that. The Bush Administration vehemently opposes the bill. (But you kind of figured that already, didn’t you?)

My labor-movement buddy, Sarah Massey, is pretty fired up on this one:

“People want the opportunity to climb the ladder into the middle class by owning a home, saving for retirement, and sending their kids to college. For a growing number of workers, that dream literally is out of reach. Very often these days, when workers strive to do something about their circumstances, like come together to collectively bargain, they are illegally fired or punished. It’s as if the anti-union employers pull the rungs right out from under them and they fall off the ladder–and the precipice–into economic ruin. ” [Ed. note: Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed viscerally drives this point home.]

And why is that happening? According to labor economist Harley Shaiken, quoted in the Los Angeles Times on February 17:

“…amendments, court rulings and NLRB administrative decisions have turned the (Wagner) act on its head, serving to throttle rather than encourage a free and informed choice on unions. Today, if workers try to organize, the NLRB generally sets a secret-ballot vote a month or more after the formal request. During this period, it is legal for the company to hire anti-union consultants, schedule an unlimited number of mandatory meetings with employees, ‘predict’ that the workplace could be shuttered if the union wins, and bar labor representatives from the premises.”

I’m pretty sure that’s not the kind of “progress” Congress intended in 1935.

Shaiken reports that although 58% of eligible workers would join a union today if they could, union membership in the private sector stands at a record-low 7.4%. Why? Fear. According to NLRB’s 2005 annual report (PDF file), in that year alone, 31,358 workers were disciplined or fired for union activity.

Another labor activisit, outspoken Latina Jackie Guerra, host of the talk-radio show Workin’ It, had this to say on her February 3 broadcast:

“Sixty-million workers say that they want to join a union. If they could form one without it risking their livelihoods, they would join tomorrow. Union workers earn almost a third more, and they are two-thirds more likely to have health insurance, and therefore decent health care. This is the first generation where young people fear that they are going to be worse off than the generation before.”

The Employee Free Choice Act is a remedy that could turn that trend around. The Act would:

–strengthen penalties against scofflaw employers;

–require mediation and arbitration to help employers and employees reach a first contract in a reasonable period of time; and

–allow workers to form a union through a “majority sign-up,” a simple process in which workers present signed authorization cards as demonstration of their choice to belong to a union.

A growing, bipartisan coalition of policymakers supports the Act. You should, too. How? Contact your Congressional representatives and tell them so (if you’re in Cook County, IL, you can use Civic Footprint to find out who represents you and how to contact them).

The Employee Free Choice Act may not work miracles, but miracles, anyway, aren’t the goal. A few basic, real protections for the rights of workers seeking to rise above through collective bargaining, a few, strong, incremental changes, that’s the point. In the words of Jackie Guerra:

“This legislation restores workers’ rights the same way we eat tortillas, one by one.”

Make mine maiz.