AFSCME members will join with other union members at a Rally to Support the Employee Free Choice Act. An all-out fight is brewing over the legislation, with big business groups pouring millions of dollars into their anti-union campaign. The national AFL-CIO is leading the free-choice offensive, countering the millions of dollars the bosses are spending by raising millions of working people’s voices to demand the freedom to form unions and bargain for a better life. To give Chicago-area workers a chance to speak out, the Illinois AFL-CIO and the Chicago Federation of labor are holding a “Rally to Support the Employee Free Choice Act.” All AFSCME members are urged to attend this rally at 5:30 p.m., on Tuesday, Feb. 17, at the Plumbers Hall, 1340 W. Washington Boulevard in Chicago. Click here for a flyer you can download and distribute.
Working people are struggling to get by, and America’s middle class is disappearing. But when workers try to form unions and bargain for a better life, corporations use coercion and harassment to stop them. The Employee Free Choice Act would restore workers’ freedom to decide for themselves—without employer intimidation—whether to form unions and bargain for better wages, benefits and a voice on the job.
The Employee Free Choice Act would:
Establish stronger penalties when companies violate the rights of workers forming unions and negotiating first contracts.
Provide mediation and arbitration when workers and the employer can’t agree on a first contract.
Allow workers to form unions and bargain once a majority signs authorization cards.
Click here for a flyer you can download and distribute.
February 7th, 2009
I won’t be there. The EFCA violates the first amendment and free speech.
I’m not sure how your employer, your union organizer, and your co-workers – knowing exactly how you vote on the issue of unionization gives an employee “free choice”.
What’s next — The union wanting to know how I vote in state/federal primary and general elections?
George McGovern recently wrote:
“To my friends supporting EFCA I say this: We cannot be a party that strips working Americans of the right to a secret-ballot election. We are the party that has always defended the rights of the working class. To fail to ensure the right to vote free of intimidation and coercion from all sides would be a betrayal of what we have always championed.”
The bill has some positives but the secret ballot should remain.
February 7th, 2009
Why don’t we let a court decide if EFCA “violates the first amendment and free speech” Mr. pdforever.
February 7th, 2009
Are you really serious? You mean a lawyer can’t have an opinion on the constitutionality of an issue until the Supreme Court rules on it? That is pretty dumb. Next time my supervisor advises me to argue the constitutionality of something I will just say “Why don’t we let a court decide”?
Yeah, but you have to argue it first before a court will decide it! AHHHHHHH…Brilliant!!!!
February 9th, 2009
Here’s what the AFL CIO says about your First Amendment concerns:
People call the current National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election system a secret ballot election—but in fact it’s not like any democratic election held anywhere else in our society. It’s really a management-controlled election process because corporations have all the power. They control the information workers can receive and routinely poison the process by intimidating, harassing, coercing and even firing people who try to organize unions. No employee has free choice after being browbeaten by a supervisor to oppose the union or being told they may lose their job and livelihood if workers vote for the union
February 18th, 2009
Here’s a link to the Sun Times article on the Rally. Glad you all could attend!
http://www.suntimes.com/business/1436649,CST-NWS-labor18.article