Let's finally level the playing field
by David Helfman, MSTA Executive Director
| Visit American Rights at Work and sign the Employee Free Choice Act petition and learn more about the bill. |
A shrinking private sector unionization rate has hurt all employees and their families—including the children in our public schools.
I was a sophomore in college when I participated in my first union organizing drive. I was waiting tables in a Madison, Wisconsin hotel. Like many others, I relied on the job to cover room, board, and tuition. The working conditions were so lousy, we decided to organize a union and negotiate improvements.
The reaction of the hotel owner was swift. He hired a labor-busting law firm. A co-worker was fired; I was assigned to the slowest shifts and the worst tables. Then the owner’s attorneys filed to have the bargaining unit defined to include not only restaurant employees, but also maintenance and housekeeping staff, who were highly dependent on their jobs and deathly afraid of management. We filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and won. It took a year and cost the hotel owner a couple thousand dollars. But he had crippled our drive.
That was 35 years ago. In the years since, the NLRB has become more and more hostile to unions and organizers. Today, only 7.6 percent of private sector workers are organized.
A shrinking private sector unionization rate has hurt all employees and their families—including the children in our public schools. Unions raised millions of Americans into the middle class by leading the fight for Social Security and the minimum wage. They helped pass laws creating the eight-hour workday, ending child labor, and protecting workers’ health and safety. When more taxpayers, voters, and parents personally benefit from their—or their family members’—union membership and collective bargaining, our effectiveness advocating for MSTA members improves.
That’s why we believe the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) should pass Congress and be signed by President Obama.
The EFCA—had it been the law in 1974—would have made a difference for my first organizing drive. Our union would have been certified as soon as we filed signature cards, shortening the organizing drive and depriving the owner of time to intimidate employees. We could have guaranteed a contract, because binding arbitration would kick in if our first contract was not settled within 90 days. And the hotel owner would have hesitated to fire my coworker or harass organizers due to more severe penalties for employers violating labor laws.
The EFCA is a critical step towards establishing a level playing field for union organizing efforts that give more hard-working Americans the opportunity to receive the salaries, benefits and job protections they deserve.
