1.5 Million Sign on to Support Employee Free Choice; Thousands Rally on Hill (photos too)

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2009/02/04/15-million-workers-sign-on-to-support-employee-free-choice-thousands-rally-on-hill/

by Seth Michaels, Feb 4, 2009

Today on Capitol Hill, thousands of union members and allies gathered to rally for the Employee Free Choice Act, a critical bill to restore the freedom of workers to form unions and bargain.

They brought along hundreds of thousands of signatures representing workers around the country who are taking part in the fight for the freedom to form unions. During the union movement’s Million-Member Mobilization, 1.5 million people signed on to support the Employee Free Choice Act. Some of those signed cards were delivered to members of Congress today as a show of broad public support.


Asela Espiritu, a nurse with Kaiser Permanente, works for one of the employers in the country that allows its workers to form unions without management interference.


Sara Steffens, one of the workers who spoke at the rally today, was laid off after helping her co-workers form a union—even though she was an award-winning reporter at the Contra Costa Times in Walnut Creek, Calif.

Steffans said it’s critical that workers have a role in making decisions in the workplace, and she wants to help prevent the kind of abuses that occurred during her struggle to form a union. That’s why she’s working on behalf of the Employee Free Choice Act.


Workers and their allies presented to Congress some of the 1.5 million signatures in support of the Employee Free Choice Act in a rally on Capitol Hill, along with union leaders and lawmakers such as USW President Leo Gerard and Sen. Tom Harkin (bottom).


“A lot of the people who organize unions are people who love what they do and are really committed to it,” she said. “It’s important that workers feel like they can step up and be part of decisions in the workplace.”

Steffens said she was surprised at the level of intimidation and the misleading campaign waged by her employer, who she never expected to be so hostile to workers’ attempts to form a union.


FULL story at link.

[Coexist]

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