Do you ever wish you had a magic wand that you could wave and make everything all-right? Get your boss off your back. Fix your debts. Pay the rent. Have enough money for gas, food, health insurance, and shoes for the kids?

There is no magic wand for working families, unfortunately. But there is hope.

Labor unions offer the best hope for working families to improve their standard of living and to win dignity on the job. It's no secret that union workers are better paid, have much better health and retirement benefits, and are not treated as poorly on the job as non-union workers.

But right now tens of millions of workers can't join unions even when they want to. The Bush administration, which is anti-union to its dying breath, controls federal agencies like the National Labor Relations Board, which oversees labor disputes between workers and their bosses.

This means that Bush-appointees don't settle disputes fairly, but automatically favor companies and typically refuse to protect workers' rights.

But even when Bush appointees aren't tipping the scale to hurt workers, the system of arbitration and labor relations always favors the companies. Even when a majority of workers at a shop or business sign union membership saying they want their union to represent them in collective bargaining, companies have the power to refer the dispute to an NLRB election. This referral gives them something like 6 weeks to change the workers' minds.

And they really go to town on the workers. Threats and harassment are all too common. Bosses will even stage mandatory meetings of workers where they feed the workers a lot of anti-union propaganda like claims that unions will either strike or force the shop to close.

Surveys indicate that more than half of all bosses threaten – illegally – to shut down the workplace and move out of the area or country if the workers decide to join a union. As many as 25 percent of workers who are trying to start a union at their workplace are either fired or threatened with being fired – illegally.

But bosses get away with it. Even when workers and their unions lodge complaints of unfair labor practices, penalties are rarely applied. When a company is found to have pressured workers illegally to vote against the union, the penalties are so meager that the company is willing to take the risk and pay a small just so that it can have things its way.

Meanwhile wages of working families are falling through the floor. Health care costs are sky-rocketing. Pensions are being gobbled up. Workers are working more for much less. But companies are doing fine. Profits are up. Executive pay is ballooning.

There is a way to change this – more union representation. But the first step is to change the system. The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), re-introduced in the U.S. House of Representative yesterday, is a bill that would stiffen penalties for employers who break the law by threatening or harassing workers in order to stop them from joining a union. EFCA would also empower workers to select their union by signing a membership card. Once a majority of workers signed a card, the union would be immediately designated as their collective bargaining representative, rather than giving the boss 6 weeks to pressure workers into changing their minds. EFCA would also create a more effective system of mediation and arbitration in first contract disputes.

EFCA is about leveling the playing field in order to help workers improve their living standards. It is about protecting their democratic right to choose who will represent them in the workplace. It is a law that needs to be passed in order to end the race to the bottom and making sure the people who work hard to create the wealth of this country are fairly compensated, have a voice in their workplace, and have a say in representative institutions.

This law needs to pass. Currently there are 231 co-sponsors in the U.S. House of Representative. Are your representative and Senators on board? Tell them to support working families by clicking here.