Council Weighs Easing Path To Union Status

By ARI PAUL

The City Council will consider a resolution supporting the Federal Employee Free Choice Act, which would make union organizing easier, it announced Dec. 10.

CHRISTINE QUINN: Decries anti-labor tactics.

Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Civil Service and Labor Committee Chairman Joseph P. Addabbo announced the introduction of the measure on International Human Rights Day. The Federal bill was introduced in Congress by U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy and Rep. George Miller.

"America's workers have the inalienable right to choose, without harassment or intimidation, whether to join a union," Ms. Quinn said in a statement. "That's the very foundation of the American Dream. But sadly, employer interference in union elections has escalated in recent years, and in 50 percent of successful union organizing campaigns a contract is never negotiated. EFCA would establish an independent process to ensure workers can freely make that choice, and if they choose a union, will create a clear path toward a good-faith contract."

The Employee Free Choice Act would create harsher penalties for employer violations of labor law when workers are engaged in organizing and contract negotiations. It would also make it easier for workers to unionize by merely requiring that they sign union cards, rather than going through a lengthy National Labor Relations Board election, which many labor leaders believe gives employers the ability to intimidate employees into voting against a union.