The Employee Free Choice Act, the legislation supported by President Obama and large majorities of both houses of congress WILL NOT ELIMINATE SECRET BALLOTS IN UNION REPRESENTATION ELECTIONS (PERIOD).
Opponents like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a range of right-wing front groups led by disciples of George W. Bush, Karl Rove, and Grover Norquist -- the folks who got the country in the mess we're in right now -- want to try to make this a debate about "secret ballots." They cry crocodile tears for workers they claim are being denied their American rights to a democratic election. But, the fact is, the Employee Free Choice Act is democratic - and it puts the choice of how workers form unions in workers' hands, not big corporations - and that's why these guys are really crying.
Let's look at how union representation elections are currently conducted, and how the deck is stacked against workers in winning the right to unite together into a union. Anyone who thinks this is a fair and democratic process has obviously never been involved in it.
Violation of Democracy #1: In order to have a union election, 30% of workers need to sign cards calling for an election. If that principle were applied to American presidential elections, we would have needed 70 million Americans to sign cards calling for last November's national election.
Violation of Democracy #2: Once 30% sign cards calling for an election it can take months - sometimes years, sometimes never - because of arcane rules that allow companies to file objections that lead to countless electoral delays, before the workers actually have a chance to vote in an election. It's usually in the interest of companies to sap the momentum from an organizing drive and delay an election as long as possible. Imagine if a candidate kept trying to push off Election Day in the hopes that the political climate would become more favorable or his opponent would give up - that's what the current process allows companies to do. In fact, it took a 15 year organizing battle to finally unionize the Smithfield Packing slaughterhouse in Tar Heel, NC.
Violation of Democracy #3: During the run-up to the election the union is not allowed to campaign on the company's property - which can mean not only the workplace but company-owned property such as parking lots. Meanwhile, the company is free to campaign anywhere it wants and can paper the workplace with anti-union messages. Imagine an election for president where one candidate is allowed to wander freely across the land talking to voters, while the other candidate and their campaign is banned from America and can only stand in Mexico and Canada hoping to speak to voters as they cross the border.
Violation of Democracy #4: Most times in union representation elections the company has full access to the list of eligible voters, but the union only has access to the list in the closing days. And the more the company can delay the election, the more time they have when they are the only voice the workers hear. How can you communicate a winning message when you don't even know who to communicate with?
Violation of Democracy #5: The company holds "captive audience meetings" - sessions at the workplace, that workers must attend, often with their direct supervisors. There the workers are shown videos about the "evils of unions" and are told that it is in their best interest to vote against the union. According to one study, during more than 90% of organizing efforts companies held group anti-union meetings and 78% of the time employees were forced to attend one-on-one meetings with their supervisors. The union, which has no access to the company's property and no list of eligible voters until the very end, must figure out any way possible to communicate its message with potential voters.
Violation of Democracy #6: Many companies fire union supporters and claim they are being fired for other reasons since it is illegal to fire or even threaten to fire workers for supporting unions. Studies show that one quarter of union organizing drives lead to employee firing, and that one out of every five workers who openly support a union are fired. It can take years of hearings to have these workers reinstated and the penalties companies face are minimal. According to one story about an organizing drive at a Rite Aid distribution center in Southern California, the company dismissed more than 100 union supporters. After being threatened with legal action, the company rehired a few workers and posted a notice saying it wouldn't engage in illegal anti-union activities. Imagine the chilling effect it would have on a political campaign if voters knew that for supporting a certain candidate they could lose their jobs.
Violation of Democracy #7: Many companies tell workers that if they opt for union representation there is no guarantee the facility will stay open - indeed more than half of employers tell their workers during an organizing drive that a union will likely lead to layoffs. Yes, it is against the law for companies to threaten to close a facility if it unionizes, but again, the hearings take months, or years, and once the company is found guilty of violating the law, the organizing campaign is long since over, and the penalty is usually forcing the company to post a notice saying they won't do it again.
Violation of Democracy #8: The elections are held on company property and workers are frequently forced to pass lines of company managers to get to the place where they cast their votes. Imagine in a political campaign if the polling places were all in one candidate's campaign headquarters and voters were surrounded by the candidate's fiercest partisans - who happened to be their bosses!
Violation of Democracy #9: If the company doesn't like the way things are going - in other words, if they think they are losing - they can delay the election or the counting of the ballots. If John McCain had that option last November the '08 campaign would still be going on.
Violation of Democracy #10: Despite all of the above, if the workers are successful and win a union representation election, the employer can delay actually sitting down and negotiating a contract for months - then put so many roadblocks in the way, that it can become almost impossible to get a contract. And this is exactly what happens 40% of the time.
Hardly a democratic process. To begin to level the playing field, President Obama and majorities of the US House and Senate support the Employee Free Choice Act. The bill will allow workers, not their employers, to choose the union formation process - either through an election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board or through majority sign up. Thirteen states and many large and successful companies (like AT&T, Kaiser Permanente and UPS) currently allow workers to make their own choice in forming unions. More than half of U.S. Workers - 60 million - say they would join a union today if they could. And is it any wonder when workers who belong to unions earn 14% higher pay and are 28% more likely to have employer-provided health care.
The Employee Free Choice Act will strengthen America's middle class by making it easier for workers to join together and bargain with their employers for better pay, benefits and working conditions. Nothing could be more democratic than that.
Crossposted from The Huffington Post
Steve Rosenthal is President of They Work for Us and on the board of Working for Us PAC. Previously, Steve was a founder and CEO of America Coming Together (ACT), an organization aimed at empowering and mobilizing progressive voters. Prior to that, Steve served for seven years as political director of the AFL-CIO, where he helped put working families back at the center of the national debate. In the early 90s Steve was Associate Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor and Deputy Political Director for the DNC under Chairman Ron Brown. Steve spent years in the labor movement with CWA and has managed and consulted with congressional, state and local campaigns, and worked in several presidential efforts. He is president of The Organizing Group, a consulting firm that specializes in grassroots voter contact.
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Thank you for this excellent analysis. The Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 800 / S. 1041) also has an excellent provision, the Treble Back Pay, which increases the amount an employer is required to pay to three times the amount of the employee's back pay when an employee is discharged or discriminated against during an organizing campaign or first contract drive.
It also contains Civil Penalties, which provide for civil fines of up to $20,000 per violation against employers found to have willfully or repeatedly violated employees' rights during an organizing campaign or first contract drive.
Call your legislators and request support for the Employee Free Choice Act, H.R. 800 / S. 1041.
Mary Francis
You are using terms that basically refer to our coun try as a "Democracy". We are NOT a democracy. We are a Representative Republic. In your argument on the "Violations", The popular vote doesn't elect the President. The vote determines the "Electoral Votes" supported in a state by the vote.
The election in November isn't the actual vote. The vote doesn't take place until the second week of December.
If I were a business owner, I would want to verify that all the votes collected are votes from MY employees, not ballot box stuffers. The call for a vote as to where to unionize or not should be a very public process. Once the determination that there is enough interest in unionizing a workplace, then that vote should be by secret ballot, making sure that neither union representatives nor company officers can have an undue influence on the outcome.
What you have presented here makes for good news print. But, this is OUR union. I would hope that OUR union would present all of the information truthfully.
Maine State Employee and union member for more than 15 years.