Employee Free Choice Act Would Boost Economy, Supporters Claim

Financial crisis could help give collective bargaining a foothold in non-union workplaces.

By David Farkas, Senior Editor -- Chain Leader, 12/18/2008 1:21:00 PM

“I don’t think it is something employers should fear,” declared Frank Snyder, an AFL-CIO official from Pennsylvania, just ahead of a December 17 gathering in Cleveland. Snyder is talking about the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), the bipartisan legislation that passed the U.S. House of Representatives in March 2007 but was blocked by a Republican filibuster the following June.

Cleveland AFL-CIO official Harriet Applegate (at podium) introduces speakers (from l.) Rev. Marvin McMickle, Amy Hanauer and Mark Ettlinger, who offered arguments for the Employee Free Choice Act.

EFCA’s enactment would permit union representation in workplaces after a majority of employees signed cards (“valid authorizations”) agreeing to unionization, without an election by secret ballot among the workers.

EFCA has picked up the support of President-elect Barack Obama, who has pledged to help pass the union-backed measure this year. “That’s why we are trying to dispel myths,” Snyder said. Fliers titled “Employee Free Choice Act: Myth vs. Fact” were piled on a nearby table.

Those myths center on arguments that the so-called “card-check” bill will bring about union intimidation, coercing workers to organize. The AFL-CIO and supporters deny this.

In Chain Leader’s December issue, lobbyist Rick Berman of Washington, D.C.-based Berman and Company warned operators that unions likely would target restaurants, including franchisees.

Compelling Arguments

Yet speakers at the Cleveland gathering hosted by the North Shore AFL-CIO seemed less interested in dispelling myths than in offering practical arguments for EFCA’s passage, expected later this year. Those arguments could prove persuasive among the financially strapped middle class as job losses mount and wages stall.

“The Employee Free Choice Act was designed to solve existing problems then,” offered Michael Ettlinger, vice president for economic policy at the Center for American Progress, a Washington, D.C.-based liberal think tank. “The current financial crisis makes it even more important today.”

Ettlinger argued that access to collective bargaining is not merely a benefit to workers but to the economy as a whole. “The act makes sense from a general economic perspective by making people better off and producing an upward spiral and greater economic growth,” he said.

The labor movement is in fact largely responsible for middle-class prosperity, insisted Amy Hanauer, executive director of Ohio Policy Matters, a liberal-leaning research group based in Cleveland. She ticked off social security, occupational safety, health benefits, vacations and unemployment insurance as proof. The audience, comprised of union members and community leaders, chuckled when Hanauer reminded them of bumper sticker that says, “The Labor Movement: The folks that brought you the weekend.”

Better Pay, More Security

Like Ettlinger, Hanauer drove home the point that EFCA would help restore the benefits unions bring to the economy, which includes better paying jobs and debt relief. Higher wages, she added, would help relieve consumer debt, now totaling $2.6 billion, according to the Federal Reserve. “Research shows that union members earn 15 percent more than nonunion workers,” she said.

Speaker Rev. Marvin McMickle of Antioch Baptist Church recalled that World War II was won because of America’s work force that “put together heavy and light items that made this country great.” Today, he added, many union manufacturing jobs have been shipped abroad, posing a security risk to this country. “Do you think we could fight another world war?” he asked.

He blamed the government and corporations for “turning their back to manufacturing jobs” and “allowing Russia, Brazil, India and China to catch up with us.”

Local union official Gary Johnson said he felt sure most workers would respond favorably to EFCA once they understood the measure. “Ninety percent of people are in the same boat,” he said. “Only a small percentage of people are benefiting from what’s taking place in the economy.”

« Back | Print