“Employees deserve to know that they will not have to look over their shoulder as they try to improve conditions at work—the Employee Free Choice Act is a safeguard against coercion and retaliation by employers,” said Council Chair Larry Phillips. “The Act also protects the rights of the employer by allowing disputes to be referred to binding arbitration.”

In the private sector, collective bargaining rights are generally governed by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The Employee Free Choice Act makes a number of changes to the NLRA that are intended to facilitate union formation and protect the right of workers to organize.

The Act eliminates the need for a secret ballot for union certification by allowing a union to become a bargaining representative if the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) finds that a majority of employees signed authorizations designating the union as its bargaining representative. The legislation provides that if an employer and union are working on their first contract and cannot reach an agreement with 90 days, either party may refer the dispute to mediation. If no agreement can be reached through mediation, it is sent to arbitration, and the results of the arbitration are binding for two years. The Act also increases financial penalties against employers who the NLRB believes have interfered with or retaliated against employees during the organization of a bargaining unit or their first contract negotiation.

At the October 23 meeting of the Council’s Committee-of the Whole, several labor organizations testified on the need to protect the rights of workers seeking to organize. David Freiboth, Executive Secretary of the King County Labor Council, told Councilmembers their research shows that when threatened with a union, “30 percent of employers fire pro-union workers, 49 percent threaten to close down, 51 percent use bribery or favoritism to tilt elections and 82 percent hire consultants that specialize in resisting unionization.”

“People of faith have long supported the right of workers to organize and to bargain collectively around fair wages,” said the Rev. Dr. Sanford Brown, Executive Director of the Church Council of Greater Seattle. “The notion of fair wages for hard work is at the heart of a just society.”

“Workers are starting to see a rollback of their right to organize, and that puts them in danger of losing their jobs even when asking for the most basic of needs, such as a living wage or a safe place to work,” said Councilmember Larry Gossett, chair of the Committee-of-the-Whole. “Congress needs to step up and protect workers. We’re asking them to follow through and adopt this legislation.”