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Study amplifies need for Free Choice Act (7/10)

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney today offered the following remarks on an American Rights at Work study titled “Neither Free nor Fair: The Subversion of Democracy Under National Labor Relations Board Elections” July 10, 2007 The new study released today by American Rights at Work and conducted by Gordon Lafer, Ph.D., “Neither Free nor Fair: The Subversion of Democracy Under National Labor Relations Board Elections,” details the extraordinary barriers workers face under current labor law to exercise their freedom to form and join unions. In the first study of its type, Dr. Lafer makes a direct comparison between union elections and political elections, and finds that unlike America’s political elections, union elections are not fair and balanced, but are skewed towards the employer. Dr. Lafer, a political scientist at the University of Oregon, describes what workers experience during National Labor Relations Board elections, including a culture of intimidation, fear, and aggression. The study details some of the extensive tactics, both legal and illegal, employers use to stifle workers’ freedom to form unions to bargain for better wages and benefits. This key study comes at a time when working families are at the tipping point. Unions are the best anti-poverty, middle-class supporting program in our nation, and are a key to turning around the growing gap between the haves and have nots. The anti-democratic and skewed system detailed in Lafer’s study clearly does not give workers a free and fair chance to improve their lives by forming unions. The Employee Free Choice Act would level the playing field for workers and restore workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain. It would strengthen penalties for companies that coerce or intimidate employees, establish mediation and binding arbitration when the employer and workers cannot agree on a first contract and enable employees to form unions when a majority signs union authorization cards. Instead of forcing workers to go through an intimidating election process wrought with corruption, it would allow them to more freely exercise their freedom to form a union. ###