Just prior to taking office, President Barack Obama gave an in-depth interview with the editorial board of the Washington Post, in which he reiterated his strong support for America's workers and the Employee Free Choice Act.
President Obama said that one of the reasons wages have flatlined in the last decade is because American workers have had "very little leverage" and "that larger and larger shares of our productivity [have gone] to the top and not to the middle or the bottom." Here's what he said:
Here's my basic principal that wages and incomes have flatlined over the last decade. That part of that has to do with forces that are beyond everybody's control: globalization, technology and so forth. Part of it has to do with workers have very little leverage and that larger and larger shares of our productivity go to the top and not to the middle or the bottom. I think unions serve an important role in that.
The President knows that growing union membership will only help our economy recover. New research makes a solid case as to why the Employee Free Choice Act would be a recovery program that gets our economy back on track: the economic impact of the Employee Free Choice Act would be about four times as large as the recent federal minimum wage increase.
But business interests who say that having more workers in unions will somehow hurt the economy need a new argument. President Obama says that anyone advancing that angle "probably won't get far with me."
You know, now if the business community's argument against the Employee Free Choice Act is simply that it will make it easier for people to join unions and we think that is damaging to the economy then they probably won't get too far with me.
Fortunately for America's workers, that's exactly the argument being used by business interests opposed to Employee Free Choice.
We finally have a President who understands that unions work, and is ready, willing, and able to enact the change that America's workers need.
Here is the full transcript of the relevant segment of President Obama's interview with the Washington Post:
Here's my basic principal that wages and incomes have flatlined over the last decade. That part of that has to do with forces that are beyond everybody's control: globalization, technology and so forth. Part of it has to do with workers have very little leverage and that larger and larger shares of our productivity go to the top and not to the middle or the bottom. I think unions serve an important role in that. I think that the way the Bush Administration managed the Department of Labor, the NLRB, and a host of other aspects of labor management relations put the thumb too heavily against unions. I want to lift that thumb. There are going to be steps that we can take other than the Employee Free Choice Act that will make a difference there.I think the basic principal of making it easier and fairer for workers who want to join a union, join a union is important. And the basic outline of the Employee Fair Choice are ones that I agree with. But I will certainly listen to all parties involved including from labor and the business community which I know considers this to be the devil incarnate. I will listen to parties involved and see if there are ways that we can bring those parties together and restore some balance.
You know, now if the business community's argument against the Employee Free Choice Act is simply that it will make it easier for people to join unions and we think that is damaging to the economy then they probably won't get too far with me. If their arguments are we think there are more elegant ways of doing this or here are some modifications or tweaks to the general concept that we would like to see. Then I think that's a conversation that not only myself but folks in labor would be willing to have. But, so that's the general approach that I am interested in taking. But in terms of time table, if we are losing half a million jobs a month then there are no jobs to unionize. So my focus first is on those key economic priority items that I just mentioned.








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