Employee Free Choice Act Supports Middle-Class Workers

I recently held a HELP Subcommittee hearing on a bill I sponsored called the Employee Free Choice Act, which levels the playing field and provides a fair democratic process by strengthening workers' right to choose whether or not they want to join a union.  For the past six years, middle-class workers have seen their wages and benefits shrink even as corporate profits and executive compensation have soared. The reality is that workers in unions earn 30 percent more in wages than non-union workers and 80 percent of union workers have health insurance while only 49 percent of non-union workers do. Coercive employers determined to obstruct any effort to allow workers to organize have eroded the basic underpinnings of middle class life: decent wages and benefits.

Many workers who support an unsuccessful union campaign are suspended, demoted, or even fired by their employer.  Research has shown that during organizing campaigns, a quarter of employers illegally fire at least one worker for union activity.   Even if workers successfully organize a union under current law, the deck is so heavily stacked against them that the employer can choose to ignore recognition of the union.  While the employer has a choice to ignore the union without recourse, the worker has no choice without the risk of being fired.

During the hearing, I heard from workers who were intimated, coerced and fired by their employer for exercising their right to choose whether to be represented by a union.  Most employers are not bad actors.  However, I do believe the current structure of the representation process perpetuates the ability of a few employers to coerce employees without consequence.

I believe that restoring workers' free choice, through the Employee Free Choice Act, is the only way to ensure that they have the right to bargain for fair wages and benefits.  It is imperative that Congress take this action for all middle class Americans and particularly for the over 60 million nonunion workers who seek nothing more than decent wages and healthcare.  Restoring the right for workers to negotiate for fair compensation is critical if we are to have America's middle class grow over the next fifty years as it did over the past fifty.

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