Demonstrators seek Lincoln's (D-Ark) support for bill to aid establishment of unions

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.arkansasnews.com/archive/2007/06/09/News/342360.html

Demonstrators seek Lincoln's support for bill to aid establishment of unions
Saturday, Jun 9, 2007

By Jason Wiest
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK - Dozens of union members and non-union workers alike gathered here Friday outside the office of Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., to urge the senator to support union-backed federal legislation that would ease union-forming practices.

Led by the Arkansas AFL-CIO State Federation, the group of steel workers, plumbers, machinists, government workers, communication workers and others delivered more than 6,000 postcards urging Lincoln to support the Employee Free Choice Act.

U.S. Senate Bill 1041 would allow workers to form unions by majority sign-up. Workers could then file a petition with the National Labor Relations Board, which would investigate the forms' authenticity and certify the union as the employees' collective bargaining representative.

"Nobody loses their privacy, and the company doesn't have time to start anti-union campaigns," Arkansas AFL-CIO President Alan Hughes said. "We believe that employees should have a right to choose."

A spokesman for the Arkansas Chamber of Commerce-Associated Industries of Arkansas said the act takes employees' privacy away, and that the chamber strongly opposes the measure.

Under current law, employers do not have to recognize a union even if a majority of workers have signed authorization forms designating their choice to join. Instead, employers can insist on a secret-ballot election overseen by the National Labor Relations Board.

FULL story at link.

[Cooley Hurd]

1. K&R - thanks for the heads-up, OS!

I hope that Unions make a comeback in the next decade - conditions today are similar to conditions faced by the American worker when Unions first came to prominence in the 1930's.