Daily Kos: VIDEO: Workers Explain Why We Need Employee Free Choice

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/2/6/115545/0968/597/694016

by Seth D
Fri Feb 06, 2009 at 09:03:14 AM PST

Cross-posted from the AFL-CIO Now Blog.

At Wednesday's rally in support of the Employee Free Choice Act, a number of brave workers who have been hurt by our broken labor law system spoke out to explain why we badly need this vital new law to protect the freedom of workers to form a union and bargain.

These workers are just a few of the nearly 30,000 workers who are harassed, discriminated against and fired every year for trying to exercise the freedom to bargain for health care, pensions and fair wages and treatment. Their stories illustrate, on an honest and personal level, the real problem with the nation’s current labor laws: People who want to form unions are at the mercy of corporations because the laws are badly tilted toward companies, not workers.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kfv1w_hHx3A&eurl=http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/2/6/115545/0968/597/694016

A long-time journalist and mother of a young child, Sara Steffens met with her co-workers to try and form a union at the newspaper where they worked in Contra Costa County, Calif. Workers hoped that with a union they could have job security and more of a say in how the newspaper operates. Despite gathering the support of two-thirds of the paper’s employees, they were met with a hostile response.

Our employer reacted the way a lot of companies do. They hired an anti-union consultant and began a pretty aggressive campaign to scare us into voting against the union. Despite all of that, we did win our election...A few weeks later, they announced a major layoff, and I was one...I had been the co-chair of our organizing committee.

I think it’s important that workers feel like they can step up and tackle problems in their workplace, and not have to be afraid that if they speak out they’re going to lose their jobs for it.

Second video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKsngmedbUo&eurl=http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/2/6/115545/0968/597/694016

Theresa Gares and her fellow school bus drivers in New Jersey wanted to form a union to bargain for basic benefits like health coverage and sick leave. Like Steffens, she and her co-workers met strong resistance from management, including hostile mandatory meetings and misleading rhetoric from management.

We decided we want a union, we want to bargain for our rights and fairness. Once they found out we were trying to organize a union, they started having meetings. They’re trying to talk people out of it, discourage them. This is what we’re fighting for: We’re fighting for fairness in the workplace, a voice in the workplace, things that we deserve.

Three-quarters of Gares’ co-workers signed petitions asking for a union, but during their effort, she and another worker were fired.

Third video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdk4juz8qGA&eurl=http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/2/6/115545/0968/597/694016

Bill Lawhorn, a forklift operator, was fired for joining with his co-workers in Ohio to try and form a union. Because of the weakness of current labor laws, his company faced virtually no penalty. After six years of legal action, his company reinstated him but has yet to pay him any back wages.

We tried to form a union to get a little respect and dignity, maybe a little retirement....We had majority support; then the company started to scare everybody, threatening to close the factory, threatening to take away wages, benefits. It scared enough people that we lost the election, and I was fired.

We need the Employee Free Choice Act so this doesn’t happen to anyone else. Nobody knows what it’s like until it happens to you for six years.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Asela Espiritu, a nurse who works for Kaiser Permanente in Orange County, Calif., discussed how Kaiser Permanente stayed neutral and allowed nurses at Espiritu’s facility to pursue a union through the legal majority sign-up process. Thanks to her and her co-workers’ successful efforts, the people who have the most direct experience in patient care have a voice when it comes to how the company operates. That’s good for nurses, for patients and for the company.

Fourth video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGL8amdE3Yk&eurl=http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/2/6/115545/0968/597/694016

With us being unionized, we’re on the same page with management on how we can deliver the best care for our patients. The Employee Free Choice Act will empower workers of all kinds of industries....They will be able to be part of the solution to the crisis we have.

The high-dollar corporate attacks on the Employee Free Choice Act rely on the fiction that unions are sinister outside forces, separate from and unwanted by workers. That myth is leveled by the stories of real people like Steffens, Gares, Lawhorn and Espiritu, who are honest, hardworking people who just wanted the freedom to have a say in their workplace and the ability to bargain for a better life for themselves and their co-workers.

It’s stories like these that illustrate why the Employee Free Choice Act is so urgent and necessary to restore the balance for workers.

Tags: Employee Free Choice Act, EFCA, jobs, economy, unions, labor (all tags) :: Previous Tag Versions