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Pro-labor measure gets local supportColorado union members back Employee Free Choice ActPeter Marcus, DDN Staff WriterMonday, April 13, 2009 | |
Union members in Colorado are joining a national campaign in support of legislation that would allow workers to form a union by getting a majority of workers to sign cards to join instead of holding a so-called secret ballot election.
The Employee Free Choice Act has already been introduced in Congress, despite cries from Republicans that it would pressure workers to join a union when they really don’t want to. From Grand Junction to Denver, union members and their families have been gathering to show their support for the legislation. Groups have held informational and leafleting sessions on the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, featured moving billboards in Colorado Springs, and rallied outside Coors Field on Friday for opening day.
Similar campaign events are scheduled to take place throughout the month in Colorado, ending with a concert at Swallow Hill Music Association in Denver on April 26.
The “Faces of Employee Free Choice Act” campaign aims to “detail the harassment workers currently experience when they try to form unions and advocate for fixing the broken system.”
“Working people are coming together to show our leaders that passing the Employee Free Choice Act is one of the reasons we elected them — to stand with us as we struggle in today’s economy,” said Dan Luevano, an electrical worker and member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 111, who is featured on the traveling billboard. “Without workers’ freedom to bargain with corporations for better wages and benefits, our community will continue to suffer.”
Employers are currently allowed to decide whether workers must hold an election or organize via the so-called “card check” system. But the Employee Free Choice Act would give workers the power to decide if they can organize via the card check system.
Supporters say the measure would allow workers to form a union “free from intimidation and harassment.”
But critics — mostly Republicans — say the measure would subject workers to “intimidation by union bosses” by taking away the element of ballot secrecy, said Dick Wadhams, chairman of the Colorado Republican Party.
Business owners are also opposed to the fact that the measure would triple damages for employers who fire union supporters or break other labor laws. The legislation would also mandate that a government arbitrator intervene if employers and workers cannot reach a contract within 120 days.
“The Employee Free Choice Act gives employees a fair opportunity to have a voice on the job for better health care, wages and working conditions,” said Luevano.
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