Hawaii Legislature Passes Employee Free Choice Measure

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AFL-CIO News Blog

by James Parks,

With passage of the federal Employee Free Choice Act a major issue for working people in the 2008 elections, lawmakers in Hawaii last week passed their own version of the bill. Union members were key to passage of H.B. 2974, which levels the playing field for workers considering a union. The legislation, which applies only to agricultural workers in the state, passed in both chambers by veto-proof margins with Republicans casting all the “No” votes.

If the bill become law, employees could join a union by signing a card saying they were in favor of the union. If a majority of the employees sign up, the union would be authorized to bargain with management.

The bill now goes to Republican Gov. Linda Lingle, who opposed the measure. Should she veto the bill, Democrats hold far more than the two-thirds majority needed to override the veto.

Hawaii State AFL-CIO President Randy Perreira told a state Senate committee that under current law, an employer does not have to recognize workers’ desire to collect signature cards of everyone who wants a union.


Read more: http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/03/31/hawaii-legislature-passes-employee-free-choice-measure/

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[xchrom]

1. recommend

[MaineDem]

2. Excellent news! n/t

[Haole Girl]

3. I thought every state had to recognize unions

Guess I was wrong about that. Thank you for this info.

[singingbiscuit]

4. Meet "right to work"

protecting you from compulsory unionism ... no kidding!

Florida is a "right to work" state

[Omaha Steve]

5. Nebraska was one of the first right to work (for less ) states

What made right to work possible: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft-Hartley_Act

The Labor-Management Relations Act, commonly known as the Taft-Hartley Act, is a United States federal law that greatly restricts the activities and power of labor unions. The Act, still largely in effect, was sponsored by Senator Robert Taft and Representative Fred A. Hartley, Jr. and passed over U.S. President Harry S. Truman's veto on June 23, 1947, establishing the act as a law. Labor leaders called it the "slave-labor bill"<1> while Truman argued that it would "conflict with important principles of our democratic society"<2> despite subsequently using it twelve times during his Presidency.<3> The Taft-Hartley Act amended the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA, also known as the Wagner Act), which Congress had passed in 1935.
Contents


* 1 Effects of the act
o 1.1 Jurisdictional strikes
o 1.2 Closed shops
o 1.3 Union security clauses
o 1.4 Strikes
o 1.5 Anti-communism
o 1.6 Treatment of supervisors
o 1.7 Right of employer to oppose unions
o 1.8 NLRB
o 1.9 Federal jurisdiction
o 1.10 Other
* 2 Entertainment industry
* 3 Opposition to the act
* 4 See also
* 5 Further reading
* 6 References

[singingbiscuit]

6. Thanks, Omaha Steve

This is the history we're not learning in school anymore. At least in FL there's no room for history when we're too busy teaching to the FCAT!

Good background info everyone should have.

[sudopod]

7. kick

also, rec