Workers’ rights advocate, lawyer discuss impact of Employee Free Choice

[Omaha Steve]

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BY BETSY SIMON The Sentinel-Record

As Americans face employment worries in a declining economy, the Arkansas Bar Association invited a workers’ rights advocate and a lawyer specializing in workplace law to debate how instituting the national Employee Free Choice Act would impact the American labor force.

The Arkansas Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law section sponsored the debate as part of its 31 st annual Labor and Employment Law Conference on Thursday at Arlington Resort Hotel & Spa.

Michael Flaherty, a partner with Jackson Lewis LLP, a law firm in Illinois and a native of Hot Springs, and Stewart Acuff, organizing director of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), were invited to the hour and a half debate to discuss the pros and cons of the EFTA.

EFTA was introduced in 2007 by U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and U.S. Reps. George Miller, D-Calif. and Peter King, R-NY. The goal of the act is to level the playing field between employers and workers who want to form unions to bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions, and help bring the American middle class back.

"There is a huge national debate surrounding this issue," Acuff said. "Workers have fallen behind in this economy. It happens every day because they are being intimidated and forced by the companies they work for not to start unions. In the 1920s, there was more wage equality. Now, the workforce has stagnated and wages are declining."

Acuff blamed wage decline and workforce stagnation on the disintegration of workers’ rights to form unions. He said there is still hope, though, if stronger penalties were implemented when employee rights are violated when trying to form unions. He added that proper mediation needs to intervene during first-contract negotiations between union organizers and employers, and employees should be able to form unions by signing cards saying they agree to union representation, instead of using secret ballot elections.

FULL story at link.