Newsline: March 2007
Labor, NYC Congress Members Vow To Fight for Employee Free Choice Act
 Members of New York City’s Congressional Delegation joined workers and the New York City Central Labor Council Executive Board members at a press conference Feb. 21, to pledge to work together to pass the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), a bipartisan bill under consideration in Congress that would restore workers’ freedom to form or join a union.
Holding the Employee Free Choice Act poster, from left, are Rep. Jerrold Nadler; Ed Ott, executive director of the New York City Central Labor Council; RWDSU President Stuart Applebaum; and members of New York City's Congressional Delegation, including Nydia Velazquez, Yvette Clarke, Anthony Weiner and Gregory Meeks.
Research shows that nearly 60 percent of America’s workers would form a union tomorrow if given the chance. “At a time when income inequality is growing and
families are barely making ends meet, a union card is the single best ticket into the middle class,” said Ed Ott, executive director of the New York City Central Labor Council, adding that he looks forward to working with the New York Congressional Delegation to see this bill through to victory.
New York City Congressional Delegates Anthony Weiner (D-Queens & Brooklyn); Nydia Velazquez (D-NY); Jerrold Nadler (DManhattan); Gregory Meeks (DQueens);
and Yvette Clarke (D-Brooklyn), were on hand to pledge their commitment to fight for passage of the bill.
“In 1935 when the NLRB was passed, the idea was that unions should be the normal state of affairs; helping society,” said Nadler. “Now the goal of the NLRB is for a unionfree environment.” Weiner agreed, saying, “We’ve been moving backwards, but with the EFCA we’re going to start moving forward.”
Velazquez decried the “billions we are spending on war in Iraq,” while workers face higher costs for health care, transportation and tuition.
Meeks recalled what’s great about America: “It’s free, and free choice is common sense.”
The newest congressional delegate, Clarke, said, “I’m happy to come in at a time when we can do something.”
The EFCA could be the most important gain for workplace rights in decades. The law would support workers in three ways:
establishes stronger penalties for violation of employee rights when workers seek to form a union and during first-contract negotiations;
provides mediation and arbitration for first-contract disputes;
allows employees to form unions by signing cards authorizing union representation.
Under the current system, which is broken, the National Labor Relations Board’s election process is ineffective because employers routinely block workers’ efforts to form unions by intimidating, harassing and dragging out the process indefinitely. About 25 percent of employers illegally fire workers who try to organize.
“The system is stacked against the middle class and they know it. They demand change,” said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa in a statement supporting passage of the EFCA. “Workers are tired of barely scraping by as the bottom lines of the Enrons and Halliburtons of the world explode on the backs of their labor.”
On Mar. 1, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 800, (a.k.a. EFCA) by a margin of 241-185. Although President Bush will likely veto the bill, mobilizing labor
and congress now may pay off under the next administration.
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