10-21-08, 9:33 am
Original source: Jobs with Justice
This is a very challenging moment in our history, but also a moment filled with opportunities, including the chance to take a big step forward in our fight for worker justice. In 2009, we can win back the right to form a union and bargain collectively in the United States. Jobs with Justice is reaching out to our allies outside of the union movement to demonstrate broad support for the Employee Free Choice Act. We need your active support in this struggle!
Our commitment to winning the Employee Free Choice Act has been amplified by the worsening economic crisis. Access to collective bargaining rights, freely chosen by workers is the best way to guarantee better benefits and wages for working families. The Employee Free Choice Act would ensure that when a majority of employees in a workplace decide to form a union, they can do so without the debilitating obstacles employers now use to block their free choice.
Specifically, the Employee Free Choice Act would strengthen protections for workers' freedom to form unions by requiring employers to recognize a union once a majority of workers signed cards authorizing union representation. It also would provide for mediation and arbitration of first-contract disputes and authorize stronger penalties for employers that violate the legal rights of workers seeking to form unions or negotiate first contracts.
To date, many JwJ coalitions have engaged in efforts to win the Employee Free Choice Act. Here are a few examples:
Colorado JwJ and National JwJ teamed up to educate hundreds of people at the Democratic National Convention about the need for the Employee Free Choice Act. They collected 900 cards in support of the Act in Denver during the week of the DNC.
In Albany, NY the Capital District Labor Religion Coalition/JwJ highlighted the need for the Employee Free Choice Act in events surrounding their Labor in the Pulpits program this year. Leading up to Labor Day, the CD LRC/JwJ held a faith-labor breakfast, educating clergy and faith allies about what happens when workers try to organize a union and asking for their support for the Employee Free Choice Act. On Labor Day, churches hosted speakers and distributed bulletin inserts on workers' rights and the Employee Free Choice Act.
At the University of Maine, Wildcat SLAP, a student group that supports workers' rights, is hosting its first open discussion group with students and faculty on Oct. 28. William Murphy, Director of the Maine Bureau of Labor Education and the Director of the Eastern Maine Labor Council, and Jack McKay of Food AND Medicine/JwJ will lead a discussion about the economy, labor, the Employee Free Choice Act and the election.
Kentucky JwJ is making systematic presentations with key community-based ally organizations on the need for and utility of the Employee Free Choice Act by connecting it to local organizing drives of workers (e.g. a Toyota plant in Georgetown, KY that workers are trying to organize). These ally organizations include: Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, KY Fairness Campaign, Women In Transition, and the KY Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
Portland JwJ will host a gathering of their Workers' Right Board (WRB) where they will discuss the Employee Free Choice Act in the context of workers' current reality when they try to organize as well as the economic crisis faced by working families. Their goal is to sign up as many as 75 WRB members state-wide onto a sign-on letter as well as to gather personal statements from WRB members about why they support the Employee Free Choice Act.
Nationally, Jobs with Justice's goal is to demonstrate broad support for the Employee Free Choice Act by contributing thousands of cards supporting the Employee Free Choice Act to the One Million Strong for the Employee Free Choice Act Mobilization, getting hundreds of grassroots organizations signed on to endorse the Employee Free Choice Act, and generating a letter from at least 150 Workers' Rights Board members. These demonstrations of support from thousands of people outside of the union movement will be delivered to the next President and Congress in early 2009.
For more information on how you can help win the Employee Free Choice Act click here.
