[HM2Viking]

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_2915
WASHINGTON - On a 241-185 vote, the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed the Employee Free Choice Act, making it easier for workers to join together to improve their wages, benefits and working conditions.
The legislation faces an uncertain future in the U.S. Senate, however, and the Bush administration has vowed to veto the bill if it passes Congress. U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., said he will introduce the bill in the Senate soon, where it will likely face a filibuster by Republicans.

Thirteen Republicans joined 228 Democrats in approving the Employee Free Choice Act in the House. It requires employers to recognize a union when a majority of workers sign up. This simple process would eliminate many of the delays and illegal employer abuses that occur in the current bureaucratic election process.

Congressman Phil Hare, D-Ill., who worked for 13 years in a garment factory, called the Republican allegations a smoke-screen. The real issue, he said, is whether workers can have the opportunity to improve their lives and the future for their children.

"I would not be here today as a member of the United States Congress if it were not for my union," he said. "My union helped me send my kids to college. It helped me buy a house . . . But sadly more and more Americans are seeing these opportunities slip away."

[iceyspots]

Sweet!

[ingelein]

From AFL CIO;
http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/03/01/ho...ee-choice-act/
"Because of today's vote, the future looks a little brighter to all Americans who have watched corporations celebrate record profits, but have themselves been shut out of the party,left with stagnent wages and facing soaring costs."

EXCELLENT!! Does it seem to anyone that the pendulum is swinging back to the left? Or at least toward that way? I think its backlash for the last 6 years, could this be a come back for unions?

[HM2Viking]

that is the goal!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HKhEN2TZHs

In a last-minute, desperate effort to delay passage of the bill, Republicans tried to get the bill recommitted or sent back to committee. Republicans wanted to add a provision that only U.S. citizens be allowed to sign union authorization cards. The House rejected the recommitment by a margin of 225–202.
Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) lashed out at the Republicans, calling the recommitment ploy a cynical act. He pointed out that under the current law it’s up to employers to ensure that all their workers are documented. Trying to move that responsibility to unions is just another example of Republican anti-worker sentiment, he said.

This [recommitment move] just shows how much you really hate workers.

[ingelein]

WOW, this is really exciting, It has been a long painful time for the poor and middle class, but maybe if we can get quality leadership , like Rep.George Miller and others in power for the next election , we just might have a chance to save this country from the GREED of the corporate robber barons , get manufacturing jobs back in this country, and treat our workers with dignity and respect. Plus we can save SO much corporate waste in healthcare with universal healthcare. I believe that it may be a long , long time before the poor and middle class forget what the right wing capitalists have done. I really loved it when, Rep. Miller stated,"Its a new day in town!"

[pickledpepperRN]

Labor law reform back on track

...if you're wondering what is really at issue, observe the representation process from the employer side. Union certification imposes on an employer a "duty to bargain." That, in fact, is the point of the exercise. It's to make employers, who in earlier days never granted union recognition willingly, sit down and bargain, and thereby -- or so the law's authors hoped -- call a stop to our uniquely violent industrial history. But resistance to collective bargaining never really abated. It just moved from the picket line to the certification process. Anti-union employers are defending the secret-ballot version because it is the most efficient way of fending off an outcome they detest. It is as simple as that.

Kazakhstan boasts the secret ballot. Yet, no one would argue that Kazakhstan meets American standards for free and fair elections. The representation election at the American workplace doesn't, either. Yes, there's a secret ballot. But the playing field -- what transpires before the worker enters the voting booth -- almost ludicrously favors the employer. He can make employees attend mandatory meetings and one-on-one interviews; he can tell them their jobs are at stake; and he doesn't have to put up with troublemakers. He fires them. The president of Kazakhstan doesn't have it any better....

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...DGRJN7A9C1.DTL

[ingelein]

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason...ployee_choice/

Time for Regime Change for American Workers

"Instead of just promoting democracy abroad, our government should defend the liberty of workers at home by supporting the new labor reform bill."

"Since 1935, the rights to organize has been whittled away by legislation, poked with holes by the appeals courts and reduced to irrelevancy by a well meaning bureaucracy(NLRB) that has let itself be intiidated by political and legal thuggery."

"The time may have come at last for a bit of regime change in the warehouse, the factory, and the nursing home."

[weirdRN]

Originally Posted by ingelein

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason...ployee_choice/

Time for Regime Change for American Workers

"Instead of just promoting democracy abroad, our government should defend the liberty of workers at home by supporting the new labor reform bill."

"Since 1935, the rights to organize has been whittled away by legislation, poked with holes by the appeals courts and reduced to irrelevancy by a well meaning bureaucracy(NLRB) that has let itself be intiidated by political and legal thuggery."

"The time may have come at last for a bit of regime change in the warehouse, the factory, and the nursing home."

AMEN!

[obme]

I was part of the Labor rally in Chicago this weekend to support the EFCA. Everyday I hear stories or have personally felt the sting of management's stubtle or not so subltle means of letting their employees know if they traverse down a union path, your life will be made miserable. I like to call it death-by-a-thousand-cuts. We are all tired of employers getting away with this intimidation and professional undermining. This rally was a bright spot for all of us who are tirelessly working to organize in our hospital system. My thanks to Sen. Durbin, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, John Sweeny,and Sen. Obama.

[NRSKarenRN]

ANA Announces its Endorsement for the Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 800)
03/02/07

The American Nurses Association (ANA) announces its endorsement for the Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 800). The Employee Free Choice Act would restore and protect workers’ rights to form unions. ANA has always been an advocate for worker’s rights to unionize, and defends the rights of all workers to bargain for better wages, working conditions and benefits. ANA actively supports initiatives which serve to strengthen the economic and general welfare of nurses. Read ANA Statement...