Press Release 05/04/2009

County Democratic Party endorses Employee Free Choice Act

SAN BERNARDINO – The San Bernardino County Democratic Party has unanimously endorsed the Employee Free Choice Act, amending the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to make it easier for employees to form, join, and support labor organizations.  Union workers earn an average of 30 percent higher wages than non-union workers, and are 59 percent more likely to have employer-provided health insurance.

   President Barack Obama also supports this legislation. As an original cosponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act in 2007, then-Senator Obama stated: “I support this bill, because in order to restore a sense of shared prosperity and security, we need to help working Americans to exercise their right to organize under a fair and free process, and bargain for their fair share of the wealth our country creates.”

    The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Act over two years ago, by a vote of 241 to 185, but it failed to pass in the U.S. Senate because supporters were nine votes short of the 60 votes required to prevent a Republican filibuster.  A 60-vote majority is more likely in the current Senate.   Reintroduced in March by California Congressman George Miller, the bill now has 224 cosponsors, all of whom are Democrats.  

   County Party members at last week’s meeting recalled their own bad experiences when they worked at non-union sites.  History also shows that the original National Labor Relations Act in 1935 played an important role in the nation’s recovery from the Great Depression.  “It gave workers a real chance to achieve the ‘American Dream,’ and helped to create a large, stable middle class,” San Bernardino County Democratic Chairwoman Carol Robb observed.

   Currently, employers can choose to accept – but are not bound by law to accept – the signed decision of a majority of workers. That choice should be left up to workers and workers alone.”

    The Act would also help to shift the choice for unionizing from the employer to the employees, and make unionization mandatory, if a majority of employees choose to unionize.

   It would enact stricter penalties for employers who violate provisions of the NLRA when workers seek to form a union, and require new mediation and arbitration procedures for disputes.

   The Act also ensures that workers who choose a union can obtain a contract promptly. A union can demand that a company begin bargaining, within ten days after certification of the union as the exclusive bargaining representative.

   According to Human Rights Watch, a nonpartisan international human rights organization, any employer intent on resisting workers' self-organization, can now drag out legal proceedings for years, fearing little more than an order to post a written notice in the workplace, promising not to repeat its unlawful conduct.

     Some employers have used spies, threats, intimidation, harassment and other illegal activities, in their campaigns to oppose unions. The current penalty for illegal activity, including firing workers for engaging in protected activity, is so minimal that it does little to deter lawbreakers.

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