Washington, D.C.
- For more details on UE Action Week, see UE News Headlines ...
UE members have just concluded a series of twelve meetings with U.S. Senate offices in eight states during the Week of Action to demand passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. Five more visits will unfold in three states in the coming week, rounding out this phase of our union wide political action push. The meetings with lawmakers come at a critical time for this important legislation, as the Senate will soon begin to consider passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) or the “card check” bill. This legislation would restore the right to organize, enable unions to achieve first union contracts, and would also punish – for the first time -- employers who now break the law and terrorize workers. Please see the Freedom to Organize sections of the main UE web page for details on the bill, and why it is urgently needed.
During the visits rank-and-file UE members recounted their own experiences as reasons why the legislation is needed. UE members told of being forced to endure massive illegal conduct by their employers who were working feverishly to stop them from organizing. Members detailed how after running through the NLRB secret ballot election minefield, their employers used every legal and illegal tactic in the book to prevent conclusion of a first union contract. Unfortunately, the worst victims of this corporate crime wave were not heard from, as that their organizing efforts were crushed completely, many were fired, and nobody is left to speak for these victims.
Commenting on the rank-and-file push for EFCA passage, UE General Secretary-Treasurer Bruce Klipple said, “Our union did a good job this week of taking the facts about employer union busting right into the offices of the Senators who will be deciding the fate of this legislation. We drove home the message that we need the Free Choice Act because bosses routinely crush organizing efforts among their workforces. They hire high priced law firms to drag out the union organizing process to months -- or years -- and they hire union busting consultants to foment confusion and impose a terror campaign inside the workplace. At the end of this manufactured ordeal they claim that they care about protecting a secret ballot election for their workers. This is preposterous, and we delivered that message to Senate offices this week. For those Senators who support this legislation we told them to get busy and bend the arms of their fellow Senators for EFCA passage. We are doing our part, now they need to do theirs.”
UE members are now completing postcards to their Senators in support of the EFCA. There is an on-line version available for members also. Please do your part to support restoration of the right to organize. No Senate action on EFCA is likely until sometime in May, at the very earliest.