Collective bargaining is more critical than ever in order for workers to earn our fair share of the wealth we create, to strengthen our middle class and to move our economy away from the trap of low wages and high consumer debt. Yet, over the last several decades, workers have effectively been stripped of our right to form unions to bargain for a better life. Protections in existing laws have been slashed and coverage has been increasingly restricted. Moreover, hundreds of thousands of workers in both the public and private sectors are outside the reach of any legal protections, including independent contractors, domestic workers, farm workers, and low-level supervisors. The labor movement has launched aggressive campaigns to effect dramatic change – to restore and extend protections to workers who have been denied these rights. Through the hard work of our affiliates, their members, and our partners at every level and with support from the Obama Administration and our allies in Congress, we are in the midst of a wide-ranging, multi-faceted effort to restore collective bargaining rights to America’s workers.
After 27 months with only two members, Presidential appointments to the National Labor Relations Board have transformed that agency. In early April, President Obama used recess appointments to place Craig Becker and Mark Pearce, two highly qualified and respected labor lawyers, on the National Labor Relations Board. Both had been nominated in July of 2009 and received committee approval, but Senate Republicans blocked final approval. Then, on June 22, Pearce was confirmed by the Senate for a term ending in August 2013, as was Republican Brian Hayes, whose term expires in December 2012. The NLRB must now get to work to ensure that the rights guaranteed in the Act are enforced fully and fairly and that violations of workers’ rights are remedied to the fullest extent possible. The NLRB must act to end the interminable delays and lax enforcement that has so defined its history under prior administrations.
But even with five Members, the NLRB cannot fix shortcomings inherent in the law. We need legislative action to amend the National Labor Relations Act to enable it to fulfill its stated goal of promoting collective bargaining. Employer fear campaigns are now the norm when workers want to form a union. Weak and ineffective remedies for violating workers’ rights have become an acceptable cost of doing business and the law’s vulnerability to manipulation provides limitless opportunities for an employer’s greatest weapon against their workers – delay, delay, delay. Even when workers survive this onslaught and gain union representation, in 44 percent of these workplaces, no first contract is reached. This is an urgent crisis for workers, blocking their ability to bargain for a better future.
The Employee Free Choice Act would restore workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain for their fair share by (1) protecting a fair and free process for workers to choose whether to form a union, a process that is not overwhelmed by endless delays and can not be dominated by employer exploitation; (2) strengthening real remedies for companies that coerce or intimidate employees; and (3) establishing a process to promote and incentivize collective bargaining through mediation and arbitration, in order to ensure that workers can achieve a fair contract. The Employee Free Choice Act remains the AFL-CIO’s number one legislative priority. We will continue to press for its passage, and we will continue to hold our elected representatives accountable for their decisions around supporting this crucially-important legislation.
Even as work continues on the Employee Free Choice Act, progress is being made in many other areas. In May of 2010, the National Mediation Board (NMB) issued a new rule that allows airline and rail workers to choose whether to join a union under rules that are more fair and more in line with democratic principles. This was possible because of President Obama’s appointment of a new member to the NMB and his reappointment of another member; the rule was issued over the objections of a third member, a Bush appointee. The airline industry filed a legal challenge, and in early July, a federal district court judge ruled against the industry and upheld the rule – a decision that the industry has now appealed in its continuing effort to block the new, democratic rule. Under the prior rule, workers covered by the Railway Labor Act (RLA) faced an almost insurmountable hurdle in forming a union: workers who did not vote in a representation election were automatically counted as a “No” vote. Under the new rule, the outcome of such an election is determined by a majority of those who vote, just like every other election in America, from city council to the president. The old rule fostered a culture of voter suppression, as companies realized they could prevail by preventing workers from voting. Those days are over. Airline workers across the country are actively organizing, including unrepresented workers at Delta Northwest, Piedmont and other carriers.
Forty thousand airport screeners employed by the Transportation Security Administration have been denied bargaining rights since 2003, when TSA’s then-Administrator issued an order forbidding collective bargaining. But TSA workers have organized anyway and 14,000 are already union members, even though they are not yet able to bargain. Earlier this year, they filed for a representation election for all 40,000 screeners under the Federal Labor Relations Authority. They are encouraged by the support President Obama has shown for collective bargaining rights for TSA screeners and by the confirmation of a new TSA Administrator in late June of this year. TSA workers are hopeful that they will have an opportunity to choose union representation so that they can bargain for a better life.
Public safety officers risk their lives every day to protect the public. They deserve the same right to discuss workplace issues with their employer that federal laws grant most other workers. This will be a reality with the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act. This legislation grants fire fighters, law enforcement officers and EMS personnel rights at work by establishing minimum standards for state collective bargaining laws. The U.S. House of Representatives included the Act in an emergency spending bill for the Pentagon, Veterans benefits and disaster relief. However, the Senate took it out when it stripped the bill of provisions that had been added by the House. House and Senate leaders remain committed to enacting it during this Congress. The Act’s primary effect will be to confer collective bargaining rights on public safety workers in about 20 states that do not currently grant such statewide rights or that prohibit bargaining altogether.
Other legislative initiatives include the Re-Empowerment of Skilled and Professional Employees and Construction Tradeworkers (RESPECT) Act, which clarifies the NLRA’s definition of “supervisor” in order to restore collective bargaining rights to millions of workers wrongly labeled as “supervisors” under recent interpretations of the statutory language and return to the original intent of Congress when it crafted the definition.
Also pending in the U.S. House and Senate is legislation to end a special deal given by Congress to the FedEx Corporation 14 years ago that the company has used to prevent thousands of unorganized drivers, truck mechanics and other ground workers at FedEx from forming a union. Under the legislation, FedEx employees who are directly involved with the company’s aircraft operations, including pilots and aviation mechanics, would continue to be under the jurisdiction of the Railway Labor Act, which governs airline and railway workers, but workers in the company’s trucking and ground operations would have the right to form a union under the National Labor Relations Act, just like their peers throughout the industry. There is no reason for FedEx to be covered under different rules than other trucking companies, especially when the company uses its special status to deny workers the right to have a union.
New, fair labor laws, combined with better, more effective implementation and enforcement of workers’ rights under existing laws, can restore American workers’ right to organize. We are committed to fight together with our allies to hold elected officials accountable and to work with the Obama Administration and the leadership in Congress to pass laws and policies that guarantee to workers in all workplaces the right to form unions. Even as these efforts are moving towards success, the entire labor movement is intensifying our efforts on behalf of workers coming together to bargain for a better life. Ultimately, only the efforts of working people standing together will rebuild the middle class and secure the American Dream for generations to come.