|
Foes Intensify Opposition
CLC
Backs Bill To Ease Unionization
By MEREDITH KOLODNER
City unions and elected officials pledged their support for a Federal bill to make union organizing easier, while opposition groups ramped up their campaign last week to defeat it. A prominent labor leader said support of the bill will be essential for any candidate for President in 2008 seeking significant labor backing.
 | |
The Chief-Leader/Michel Friang B
ALANCING THE SCALES: Labor
has made passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make
it easier for workers to unionize, one of its highest priorities.
'This is the most important piece of legislation in the last 70
years,' said Ed Ott, the executive director of the AFL-CIO New York
City Central Labor Council.
|
|
The Employee Free Choice Act, which has 234 sponsors including seven Republicans, is supported by the city's entire Congressional delegation. Business-funded groups began an advertising and lobbying blitz against the measure after it was passed Feb. 14 by a committee in the House of Representatives.
'Biggest in 70 Years.'
Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy has promised to introduce an identical bill in the Senate within the next few weeks. Local labor leaders said passage of the law was one of their highest priorities.
"This is the most important piece of legislation in the last 70 years," said Ed Ott, the executive director of the AFL-CIO New York City Central Labor Council, at a Feb. 21 press conference. "The National Labor Relations Act has been turned on its ear. It has been used as a weapon against workers' right to organize.
"Next year, this issue is going to become the acid test for labor's support," Mr. Ott continued. "We're going to be very aggressive in candidate interviews. Every presidential candidate, every Congressional candidate is going to have to commit to supporting workers' right to organize."
Advocates of the measure say that current Federal labor law stacks the odds too heavily against workers who want a union.
'Numbers Show Problem'
"When the NLRA was set up, the aim was not neutrality, the goal was to help workers form unions," said Manhattan U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler at the press conference. "The fact that only 8 percent of workers have unions when over 50 percent say they want one shows that there's a problem."
The bill, if enacted, would force an employer to recognize a union if a majority of workers signed union authorization cards, allowing them to bypass the traditional ballot election process. It would also increase penalties for companies that violate labor law or illegally interfere in the unionization process. Speaking to the National Association of Manufacturers two weeks ago, Vice President Dick Cheney promised that President Bush would veto the bill if it made it to his desk.
City workers would not be directly affected by the proposed law, since they are not covered by the NLRA. Public unions in the city, under the Taylor Law, are allowed to use a unionizing process similar to the one laid out in the bill, known as card-check, to demand recognition from city agencies. If more than 50 percent of workers in a bargaining unit sign "showing of interest cards," the Office of Collective of Bargaining can certify the union's right to represent those workers. City management, however, can contest the union's case, and sometimes an election is ordered as an alternative. Unions can also elect to go through the balloting process, as long as they have the signatures of 30 percent of the work force indicating interest in joining.
But some public labor leaders said they thought the bill's importance went beyond the private sector.
'Fosters Anti-Unionism'
"When there are companies who don't want to negotiate with unions," said Vernetta Chesimard, the coordinator for Region 10 of the Public Employees Federation, "that creates an anti-union atmosphere, and that hurts all of us."
Others said that the presence of non-union workers had a direct impact on contract negotiations with the city.
"The fact that less than 8 percent of private workers are in unions means that employers come after us, our pensions, our wages, and our benefits," said Bill Henning, a vice president of Local 1180 of the Communication Workers of America, which represents city administrators. "They say, 'Everyone else pays for their health care and you should too.'''
Groups opposing the new legislation have begun running full-page advertisements in major newspapers across the country, claiming that the measure is undemocratic since it replaces the ballot process with card-check. They say that a formal election ensures workers' right to privacy. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Center for Union Facts, the National Right to Work Committee and the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW) have gotten involved in the campaign.
"Our coalition will fight this legislation every step of the way to make sure that it never rears its head again," said CDW spokesman Todd Harris. "Our aim is not simply to defeat it in 2007, but to defeat it permanently." CDW members include dozens of business groups such as the American Hospital Association, the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association, the National Restaurant Association and the National Retail Federation.
Employer Intimidation
Unions say that the election balloting process now in place gives employers the opportunity to intimidate employees by dragging out the process for two months or more. Studies show that employers illegally fire workers in at least 25 percent of all organizing drives. The bill would not only force recognition after a majority in a workplace signed union cards, it would also impose fines and triple back-pay for workers who were fired illegally for supporting a union.
Labor advocates say that unionizing drives get stymied even when they succeed, since more than half of all workers who vote for a union don't have a contract within two years. The bill would allow either side to seek mediation if there is no contract within 90 days of a successful union drive. If there was still no agreement after 30 days of mediation, the dispute would go to binding arbitration.
Supporters of the bill say that it would allow workers to exercise their legal right to organize, while also helping to narrow the nation's income gap.
"The majority of retail workers in this country have to
get help from some kind of government program," said Stuart Appelbaum, the
president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. "Give us fair
labor laws and we'll transform them from low-wage jobs into middle-class
careers."
| 
)