18 May, 2009
Hundreds of ICEM affiliates from every continent responded to an ICEM Circular to lend support to American trade unions in their legislative battle to pass the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). In recent weeks, support letters arrived in droves to ICEM’s nine US trade union affiliates, which together with the rest of the American trade union movement are waging a bitter fight against a rabid business lobby in order to enact the first meaningful labour law reform measure in the US in 50 years.
The EFCA would simplify and make the process fairer for workers who choose to organise and win US government certification for collective bargaining. The proposed law would give workers the choice of union representation if a simple majority in any given workplace signed a card or petition seeking unionisation.
Currently, it is the employer that chooses which of two methods – “card-check” recognition or a one-sided election procedure – to certify a bargaining representative. In nearly all instances, a company chooses the election method because the government-conducted vote is held at the worksite and trade unions have no on-the-job access to workers in the 30-45 days leading up to the vote.
Instead, over the past three decades, employers have fine-tuned the process, using stop-work meetings to vilify the union, sacking workers who support the union, and utilising threats and intimidation by stating that if the union is voted in, layoffs or plant closures will occur. Although such union-avoidance tactics currently do violate US labour law, no penalties are attached so bosses have crafted the election process to their distinct advantage.
If the EFCA is passed, financial penalties will be levied on employers who deploy such tactics. Perhaps most significantly, the proposed legislation contains a first-contract arbitration provision in which contract proposals are submitted to a government mediator if an initial collective agreement cannot be reached. Oftentimes at present, management’s strategy following a union win in a government-supervised election is to “surface bargain” without ever intending to come to an agreement. After one year, the union can then be decertified.
ICEM’s call to its global affiliates came immediately after Global Unions, comprising the 11 Global Union Federations, plus the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) of the OECD, issued a statement, demanding passage of the EFCA: “There is no defense for employers who interfere in workers’ decisions to form trade unions … It is time for the United States to join the other democracies around the world that respect the fundamental rights of workers to form trade unions and bargain collectively with their employers. Members of the US Congress should muster the courage to resist a massive, multi-million dollar employer campaign of propaganda, scare tactics, and distortion.
“We, the Global Unions, representing around 200 million workers on all continents and in all industries, call on the United States Government to adopt the EFCA.”
Many of the ICEM affiliates that wrote to the US unions alluded to the current global economic crisis, and the best means to rise out of that crisis. “We know that a strong economy depends on workers given the opportunity to join a trade union and to bargain collectively so that fair wages and social benefits are lifted for all in a society.”
The letters concluded by stating: “Please pass to your union membership, as well as to your elected officials, that our union fully supports EFCA, and that we consider it an essential element in a free society that workers be allowed to join a trade union in an unobstructed way.”
American trade unions are currently pushing members of the US Senate to adopt the bill. US unions played the major role in electing members of the Democratic Party to substantial majorities in both the Senate and US House in last year’s elections. But a number of supposed pro-worker Democrats in the Senate have come under the influence of the business lobby’s misinformation campaign putting passage of EFCA in jeopardy.
As committees of Congress prepare to debate EFCA, Democrats in the Senate are suggesting compromises, such as workers submitting “card-check” authorization directly by mail to the US labour board, or proposing alterations to the first-contract arbitration procedure.
This is the fourth time in recent years that EFCA has been proposed in the US Congress, but the first time it has a realistic chance of enactment. This is due to President Barack Obama’s pledge to sign it, as well as the US labour movement’s yeoman work in elections six months ago that gave a political mandate to do away with George Bush’s draconian policies.
In March 2007, the last time the measure was before Congress, it passed the US House by a 241-185 vote. But it died in the US Senate when proponents failed to gain the 60 votes necessary to invoke cloture, or the vote to shut down filibustering on a piece of legislation. In the coming weeks, Democrats are expected to have exactly 60 seats in the 100-seat Senate. Labor’s strategy this time is to first gain passage of EFCA in the US Senate before taking it to the House.