Almost as soon as she begin her new job as a housekeeper at Jorgensen's motel, Amy Swanson knew that the workplace conditions she and her coworkers were subjected to were untenable. There was no access to affordable healthcare and her wages were pitifully low. She and the other employees of the Helena, Montana motel had no job security, and little to no say in what their schedules would be from week-to-week.

"I knew I had to speak out," said Amy, sharing her story at a congressional briefing held by the National Council of Women's Organizations (NCWO) on Capitol Hill this morning. "Not only for my own family, but for my co-workers and future housekeepers who will work at Jorgensen's. There was no reason why my job had to be a job with low wages, no benefits and high turnover." Amy knew from past experience the best way to go about improving her workplace:

I already knew that workers could win by forming a union. Before I moved to Helena I worked in food service at Warm Springs State Hospital. Because we had a union we were able to win healthcare coverage, job security and wages that could support a family.

That's not asking for much. But for me it means everything. It means not staying up at night worrying about how I'm going to keep the electricity on and put food on the table. It means being able to take my daughter to the doctor when she is sick or just bring her in for a checkup.

Amy started talking to her co-workers about advocating for workplace standards, higher wages and respect on the job through forming a union. Once these discussions on gaining a voice at work were underway, the employers at Jorgensen's motel made it clear right away that they were not in favor of the idea, singling Amy out to try and intimidate the other housekeepers from supporting the union. They changed her work schedule so she could no longer always pick up her daughter after school. They cut her schedule from 40 hours between 20 and 25 hours per week--and then added more rooms to her daily cleaning schedule. She was under constant surveillance by management, which was hard to deal with, Amy says. "It was a very intimidating environment and it was clear they wanted me to quit, but that was not even an option for me to consider."

Employers routinely and flagrantly violate workers' rights when they try to form unions for a voice. Studies show that 25 percent of union organizing drives lead to employee firing, and that one out of every five workers who openly support a union are fired. Amy Swanson can attest to these facts firsthand, since it happened to her:

One week before my one-year anniversary, I was fired. I worked hard everyday to support my daughter, and I was fired for speaking out and trying to improve my job.

This should not happen in America.

Luckily I found another job a few weeks later as a food service worker at a school in Helena. The hours allow me to care for my daughter, but I still don't have a union and I can't afford the health coverage offered.

If enacted, the Employee Free Choice Act would allow workers to form unions without having to go through what Amy experienced. She and her coworkers would have had the free choice to form a union to improve their jobs and better support their families, without encountering employer resistance, intimidation or termination. They would have been able to win a contract that would Amy to provide for her daughter the life she deserves.

Read more about employer-based intimidation in the workplace here and why we need the Employee Free Choice Act.

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Amy Swanson is a Grassroots Lobbyist through SEIU's Change That Works campaign. You can read more about the program here.

Today, a report issued by the Center for Economic and Policy Research points to a fairly disturbing (not to mention illegal) trend during the 2000s: if you looked at all of the campaigns to earn unions, you'd find that more than one-fourth of them have been "marred by an illegal firing" of at least one worker as he or she fought for representation in the workplace.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - More than one-fourth of all union-representation elections in the 2000s have been marred by an illegal firing of a pro-union worker, according to a new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR).

You can read the full report here: http://www.cepr.net/index.php/publications/reports/dropping-the-ax/

If there has ever been a more startlingly-clear reason as to why the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act is vital, you can look no further than this report. The bill will both give employees the free choice to join unions without management interference and strengthen penalties for employers who break the law.

Here's an update from SEIU President Andy Stern and Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger regarding efforts to get our economy back on track.

Big Business is working overtime ... not to help get our troubled economy get back on track, but to prevent American workers from freely being able to join unions and bargain for better wages, health benefits and job security.

We see it with the fifteen year long struggle by workers at Smithfield in North Carolina, who overcame employer threats and intimidation - including illegal firing of union supporters -- and recently voted for a union. And we see it in the latest round of false and misleading advertising, by corporate special interests who want to maintain their power to keep wages and benefits as low as possible by lobbying to stop Congress from passing the Employee Free Choice Act.

To set the record straight, American Rights at Work, a nonprofit advocacy organization, recently launched a series of "Fact Check" print ads which have appeared in The Hill, Roll Call, Politico, and the National Journal' s Daily Congress AM. These ads counter the lies and half-truths with the real facts about how the Employee Free Choice Act is a vital part of rebuilding our country's middle class in order to revitalize our shaken economy.

Here are some of the facts:

• Workers in unions earn 30% higher wages and are 59% more likely to have employer-provided health insurance (www.bls.gov).
• 68% of middle class Americans would like their Members of Congress to vote for the Employee Free Choice Act (www.drummajorinstitute.org).
• During union organizing campaigns, over 94% of employers resist their workers' efforts to form unions, and 25% even fire union supporters (University of Illinois at Chicago).

And to those wondering about big business' alleged concerns about preserving workers' right to a secret ballot, rest easy: The Employee Free Choice Act does NOT eliminate the right to a secret ballot election. What it does is leaves the decision on whether to have an election with the workers, where it belongs.

The ads can be viewed at the links below.

* First ad

* Second Ad

In conjunction with American Rights at Work's Fact Check campaign, SEIU's Change That Works campaign has begun sending email communications to share important information about why the time for Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act is now.

Please send this link http://freechoice.seiu.org/page/s/freechoiceupdate to your friends so they can sign up to get the Facts and stay informed about the Employee Free Choice Act.