TYLER, TX – Yesterday, after nearly a decade of legal maneuverings and circumventions of federal law, Wal-Mart was finally forced to the bargaining table in Jacksonville, Texas. More than nine years ago, workers in the meat department in the Jacksonville Wal-Mart voted to be represented by United Food and Commercial Workers Local 540. What Wal-Mart proceeded to put these workers through was both unlawful and unconscionable.

In one of the company’s most audacious displays of hubris, Wal-Mart first ignored the workers, refusing to bargain with them or provide information to their union. Only after the National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint against Wal-Mart did the company try to move the goalposts by claiming that workers in the meat department had lost their right to representation because the skilled meatcutting jobs had been replaced by a prepackaged meat program. Eight years and several legal battles later, Wal-Mart ran out of excuses when the United States Court of Appeals forced the company to bargain with these workers.

National and international law protect the right of workers to join a union of their choosing. When the outcome of an election is uncertain for this long in other countries, we call it a coup. When it happens here, it’s just another day on the job for the millions of American workers for whom a voice on the job is being unjustly denied. The story in Jacksonville, while particularly alarming, is far from the only one of its kind.

A multi-billion dollar war chest and a team of corporate lobbyists shouldn’t be prerequisites to the free exercise of federally-protected workplace rights. Without legislation like the Employee Free Choice Act, workers will continue to fight drawn-out, expensive, and – all too often – losing battles against multi-national corporate empires that see them as a liability to be minimized.

EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE ACT
Labor unions and business groups have launched a fierce battle over proposed legislation that would rewrite the nation’s labor laws and make it easier for workers to form a union. If passed, the Employee Free Choice Act would amend the National Labor Relations Act to allow workers to form a union if a majority of them signed a card or a petition. Under current law, employers can force workers to hold a secret ballot election before recognizing a union. The bill also adds penalties for employers that discriminate against workers for their union-organizing activity and mandates that a government arbitrator will intervene if employers and workers cannot agree on a contract within 120 days.

Labor groups say the Employee Free Choice Act would help restore the freedom of workers to form unions and bargain collectively, while business groups argue that the bill would hurt profits and lead to more layoffs. Both sides have launched massive lobbying efforts.

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/3/13/business_labor_groups_clash_over_legislation

Workers on the ground say that current labor law has no teeth and must be changed. In Lancaster, California, one of the country’s hardest-fought organizing drives highlights the obstacles they face. A year ago, employees at Rite Aid’s huge drug warehouse there voted to join a union. On March 21, 2008, the National Labor Relations Board certified that union, giving it the right to negotiate a first union contract. But Rite Aid, workers say, has just been waiting for the year to expire. Once it does, the company can stop the pretense of negotiating.

http://www.truthout.org/031109R

rickinno…who do you work for the Heritage Foundation or the American Enterprise Institute? This “secret ballot” propaganda hides the fact that the real bullys are the Corporations that Fire employees who try and organize, and intimidate Employees with threats and propaganda videos in the weeks before the any “secret vote.”
Wages for Union Workers are 30 percent higher than for non-union workers ($863 median weekly earnings vs. $663). Union workers are 63 percent more likely to have health insurance (78 percent of union workers have employer-provided health insurance vs. 49 percent of non-union workers). And union workers are four times more likely to have pensions.

Ever since President Reagan fired the Air Traffic Controllers and sent the clear message that Workers could be fired for fighting for their Rights-Corporate America followed suit and Companies like Eastern Airlines and Greyhound Fired all their employees and rehired lower paid Non-Union Workers. The Average Wage for the Average Worker in the U.S. has remained stagnant or decreased with Inflation.

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/beat_the_press_archive?month=12&year=2008&base_name=the_employee_free_choice_act_a