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.

In an incredible piece of news that's been a long time coming....workers at Smithfield Tar Heel in North Carolina, the world's largest meatpacking plant, voted for union representation on Thursday with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.

Take a look:

While Smithfield has repeatedly engaged in typical unionbusting activities during the organizing effort, one startling event stands out: Violence erupted immediately after the 1997 union election. At the Tar Heel plant, Smithfield operates its own armed police force with the authority to arrest and detain workers on its property. Although federal labor law says workers have the right to participate in a union election free from fear, coercion, and intimidation, this company police force--heavily armed and dressed in riot gear--surrounded the plant on the day of the election. After the vote count, union supporters were physically assaulted and falsely arrested by the Bladen County Sheriff's Deputies, who were called in by the company to supplement its own private police force.

Even as Smithfield workers won this election, it's taken 15 years to get to this point after unprecedented intimidation - and they still have to negotiate a contract. With the Employee Free Choice Act, the workers' choice would've been recognized as early as 1994, and they'd have a contract for better wages and benefits.

Congratulations to Smithfield workers who persisted in seeking a voice at work in the face of unbelievable opposition from management. With the Employee Free Choice Act, more workers like them can enjoy better wages benefits and job securities.

Read AP's coverage of the victory here. Local NC paper The News & Observer's news coverage here.