Business Lobby Scrambling As Pro-Union Activists Rally Wednesday on Hill

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/art-levine/business-lobby-scrambling_b_163712.html


Art Levine

Contributing editor of The Washington Monthly
Posted February 3, 2009 | 06:09 PM (EST)

The union movement shows more of its clout this week when thousands of supporters of the Employee Free Choice Act are scheduled to rally on Capitol Hill Wednesday to deliver 1.5 million signatures in support of the bill. Even so, unions face a tough, but winnable battle ahead in Congress countering $200 million in corporate smear ads and intensive lobbying based on the falsehood that the bill would take away the secret ballot.

But they've been buoyed by strong pro-worker actions last week by the White House and a tough new ad campaign launched this Sunday pushing back against what they call corporate lies.

While businesses see the bill as a threat to their drive to keep workers' wages low and weaken their clout in the workplace, workers like Theresa Gares, a school bus driver for Durham School Services in New Jersey, have been fired trying to organize a union. In seeking to join a union, Gares and her co-workers wanted to improve their minimal job benefits. They currently have no sick leave or vacation time. Their health benefits cost between $200 and $500 per month for family coverage, but because their employer classifies them as part-time workers, they only have partial benefits--and that means their coverage is so limited, there is no deductible above which insurance will cover. Despite paying hundreds of dollars a month for coverage, the workers are often left with large medical bills. In short, Gares says she sought a union because "maybe we can have something better."

Gares is in the process of filing unfair labor practice charges against the company with the National Labor Relations Board, challenging her termination as illegal. But in the meantime, she has to figure out how to live with no income and no health benefits. Despite, the setbacks, she is determined to fight on.

"These big companies need to stop walking over all of us little people," Gares says.

That's why workers are coming to Capitol Hill tomorrow to ask for their rights to be protected.

FULL story at link.

[PM Martin]

1. Good to hear!

[billyoc]

2. This is the battle of the decade, we can't afford to save anything for next season.