African American Baptists Endorse Employee Free Choice (3 million members)

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/11/12/african-american-baptists-endorse-employee-free-choice/

by James Parks, Nov 12, 2008

The momentum for the Employee Free Choice Act is growing. The latest organization to sign on in support of the bill is the National Baptist Convention of America (NBCA), one of the nation’s largest African American religious groups with 3 million members.

In a letter to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, the Rev. Samuel Tolbert, general secretary of the NBCA, writes:

The (NBCA) will join with you in raising the level of awareness of our leadership and our membership of the importance of workers across the spectrum having the right to form and join a union if they so choose.

I continue to believe that workers have a right to have a voice in the process that determines their wages, hours and conditions of employment.

The union movement is supporting the Employee Free Choice Act because it gives working people the freedom to make their own decision about whether and how to form a union. Working people are struggling to make ends meet in today’s economic crisis. The Employee Free Choice Act will allow more people to bargain for better wages and working conditions, helping to rebuild our middle class and create an economy that works for all.

AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer William Lucy, who spoke to NBCA’s leadership about the bill at its meeting last month in Houston, says it is important that religious groups speak out about the Employee Free Choice Act.

The freedom to join a union is a basic human right. This is not just an economic issue, it’s a moral issue. What the National Baptist Convention is saying, along with numerous other religious groups, is that it is morally wrong to deny workers a voice in their workplace. At the same time, the Employee Free Choice Act could be a key part of our economic recovery by helping workers receive a good wage for their labor. We need to pass the Employee Free Choice Act because in so many ways it is the right thing to do.

Click here (http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/voiceatwork/efca/allies.cfm) to check out which organizations support the Employee Free Choice Act

And here (http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/voiceatwork/efca/) to learn more about the legislation.