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LABOR DISPUTE

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By ED CHAMBERS

Special to the Tribune

Published: February 7, 2009

This year promises to be a year of unprecedented challenges for our country. Our economy is in recession, the financial markets are in crisis, the auto industry has almost collapsed, more Americans face foreclosure and the number of unemployed Americans is, according to some estimates, close to 10 million. Our middle class is shrinking.

The road to economic recovery is paved by a strong middle class. The Employee Free Choice Act represents the best chance for our country to expand the middle class because it would give American workers a fair choice to form a union and bargain collectively for better wages and benefits.

To suggest, like many opponents of this legislation do, that Employee Free Choice would hurt our struggling economy is nothing more than fear mongering. It is further insulting that some of these anti-worker critics tie in blame to union autoworkers for the approaching collapse of Detroit's auto industry.

Decades of policies favoring CEOs and corporate profits over everyday working Americans fueled Wall Street to run our country's economy into the ground. Unions did not overextend our banks. Unions did not give out loans to consumers who could not pay them back. Unions did not make the strategic decisions on which cars to build.

It's not in a union's interest to bargain for wages and benefits that a company can't afford to provide. The goal of unions is to negotiate with companies and settle labor agreements that are good for the company, the workers and the community.

Better Pay And Benefits

America has a consumer-based economy, and the best way to put America back on its feet is by expanding the middle class. That is what the Employee Free Choice Act will do. Union members in America earn 30 percent higher wages than nonunion workers and are 59 percent more likely to have employer-provided health care. Studies also show that a dense union workforce in a region or industry also raises wages for nonunion workers. The whole economy benefits when there are more union members. With better pay and benefits, more Americans will have the money in their pockets to spend and stimulate our economy.

Another disingenuous criticism of the Employee Free Choice Act is that the bill would strip workers of their right to have a secret ballot election. That claim is utterly false. The Employee Free Choice Act will not eliminate secret ballot elections - it gives workers the power to decide for themselves how they want to vote on joining a union. Employers currently decide how workers vote on joining a union when they choose to accept or ignore a majority of signed union cards. Employee Free Choice rightfully puts the decision in the hands of workers in voting to join a union through majority sign-up or secret-ballot election.

Restoring Balance

Comparing a union election to a political election is misleading. You can't stop your employer from holding one-on-one meetings to intimidate you and threaten your job if you vote for the union when you know that your employer controls your pay, schedule, workload and whether your services are needed.

Sixty million workers say they would join a union if they could. Clearly, something must be wrong with our system if they want to join a union but can't. Passing the Employee Free Choice Act would restore balance between workers and their employers.

We are at a crossroad in our history, and we have the opportunity to ensure our economy works for everyone. Now is not the time for partisan politics. The country desperately needs leadership. Congress should pass the Employee Free Choice Act. America has never needed union members as it does now.

If history is any indication, more union membership will help foster economic recovery by building lasting prosperity. Congress understood that well in 1935 when, in the middle of the Great Depression, it passed the Wagner Act to encourage more Americans to form unions.

We can only hope that the current Congress will have the same wisdom to pass the Employee Free Choice Act and put America back on the path to strong economic growth.

Ed Chambers is president of the United Food & Commercial Workers Union, Local 1625, in Florida. It represents workers in the phosphate industry, Brandon Regional Hospital, Lakeland Regional Medical Center, Disney, Smithfield and many area nursing homes.

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