Chicago
AFL-CIO Executive Council statement
The Employee Free Choice Act has earned the support of majorities in both houses of Congress. On March 1, the House of Representatives voted for Employee Free Choice by a margin of 241 to 185. And on June 26, 51 senators voted to defeat a Republican filibuster of Employee Free Choice and move forward with the bill. (Another Senate supporter was unable to vote.)
A few years ago, many people would have thought it unlikely that comprehensive labor law reform could win majority support in both houses of Congress, especially in so short a time. This is a tremendous achievement that should not be underestimated.
But it is only the beginning. Now is the time to finish the job and make Employee Free Choice a reality.
Make no mistake: Employee Free Choice will become law. There should be no question about that. The only question is how and when.
Employee Free Choice must become law because the need for it is growing every day. Middle-class families are finding it harder and harder to maintain their living standards, much less get ahead. Workers’ wages are stagnating or falling. Economic inequality in this country is rising to alarming levels. And health insurance and retirement security are increasingly beyond the reach of middle-class families. Our country cannot afford to continue on this course.
It is becoming increasingly obvious that our country has gone astray. Every day more people are coming to understand that the ability of workers to form and join unions is what laid the foundation for the explosive growth of the American middle class in the post-World War II period. Every day, more people are coming to appreciate the role of collective bargaining in promoting broadly shared economic growth and prosperity, higher wages, better jobs, better and more extensive health care coverage, retirement security and dignity and respect for workers on the job.
Employee Free Choice must become law because the system for forming and joining unions in this country is badly broken. Workers today who merely want to exercise this fundamental right, which is supposed to be guaranteed by law, are routinely forced to endure a grueling ordeal—one in which they are subjected to extraordinary stress and forced to risk losing their livelihoods. Our country cannot afford to continue on this course.
The AFL-CIO will continue its efforts to enact Employee Free Choice until it becomes law. Democrats in Congress have committed to keep bringing up Employee Free Choice and voting for it until it becomes law. But passage of any piece of landmark legislation invariably involves repeated and continuous effort. For example, the frustration of multiple attempts to raise the minimum wage to $7.25—through years of filibustering by Senate Republicans and the concerted hostility of the House Republican leadership—ultimately gave way on May 25th to our superior commitment to make work pay. Similarly, our commitment to enact Employee Free Choice will not be abandoned until it succeeds.
So the question is how and when Employee Free Choice will become law. To enact Employee Free Choice in the 111th Congress, we will need to deepen and broaden our grassroots movement for reform, create a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and elect a president who can and will lead the movement for Employee Free Choice, navigate the bill through Congress and sign it into law.
We know, however, that the closer we get to enacting Employee Free Choice, the fiercer the corporate opposition to reform will be. Already, corporate opponents of reform are posing—ridiculously and shamelessly—as defenders of the rights of workers. But the public understands that the true interest of the corporate opposition is to perpetuate a broken system that keeps workers from bargaining with their employers for higher wages and benefits and a better life for themselves. The corporate opposition to Employee Free Choice boils down to pure greed.
Fierce opposition from the corporate community only strengthens our resolve to build on the momentum generated by this year’s congressional votes and restore the freedom of working people to bargain for a better job and a better life for themselves. To do this, we resolve as follows:
· Every national and international union in every sector commits to play a role in the movement for Employee Free Choice. Not all of our members are covered by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), but we all have a stake in Employee Free Choice. The Employee Free Choice movement is about re-establishing the principle that every employee—in every sector and industry, public or private sector—must have a free choice to make his or her own decision to join a union and bargain for better wages, benefits and more of a say in the workplace.
· Every national union, state federation, central labor council, trade department, constituency group and allied organization commits to educate, mobilize and enlist our members in the movement for Employee Free Choice.
· Every segment of the labor movement commits to engage and cultivate more allies, religious leaders, civil rights leaders, academics, think tanks and pundits to speak out about the importance of restoring the freedom to form unions to build a just society.
· We will continue to help educate lawmakers at every level about the obstacles to workers’ freedom to bargain with their employers for better wages and benefits, beginning with meetings over the August congressional recess. We commit to hold elected officials accountable and convert supporters into warriors who will help lead the movement for Employee Free Choice.
· We commit to expand the existing majorities in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate in support of Employee Free Choice. We will come to the assistance of incumbents who have demonstrated their commitment to Employee Free Choice; champion challengers in the House and Senate who demonstrate their commitment to Employee Free Choice; build the institutional capacity of the Employee Free Choice movement in targeted states; and conduct public events and activities to promote Employee Free Choice in all 50 states.
· We commit to elect a president who will not only agree to sign the Employee Free Choice Act into law, but who will commit to lead the movement for Employee Free Choice and navigate this legislation through Congress.
· We commit to integrate the movement for Employee Free Choice with our other ongoing efforts to promote health care, good jobs and a fair economy.