http://www.seiu.org/2009/03/level-the-playing-field-with-employee-free-choice-act.php3:23 PM Eastern - March 11, 2009
Level the Playing Field with Employee Free Choice Act
By Kate Thomas
Last night, SEIU's Stephen Lerner was on MSNBC's Hardball and had a really great exchange that explains our case for the Employee Free Choice Act.
Lerner delves into the hypocrisy of business groups' new "campaign" of allegedly standing up for workers' rights:
"The Chamber of Commerce...who opposed raising the minimum wage, who opposed health insurance for kids, who opposed almost everything that would help workers--is now saying their interest is to protect the rights of workers. It's silly. They like the status quo...for 30 years wages remained stagnant, while productivity went up, wages went down. The middle class was destroyed. They got million dollar bonuses; they did great. We're just trying to level the playing field."
No one said this fight would be easy, but it's nothing compared to what workers face every day in the battle to bargain collectively with their employers for better wages and health care. Today, 51% of employers illegally threaten to close down a worksite when workers try to join together to form a union. Thirty percent unlawfully fire workers who support forming a union. And workers who ask for a union election don't get a chance to vote in 4 out of 10 cases.