Do The Right Thing, Arlen

The latest from Working America…

The time has come for Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) to step up.

Today, the Employee Free Choice Act was introduced in the Senate. It is the single most important legislation in 70 years to ensure we have the freedom to form unions and bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions. The bill is similar to the one that was passed overwhelmingly by the U.S. House a few weeks ago.

With your help, the Senate can continue the work the House began. More co-sponsors are needed to help push the bill through the Senate. Tell Sen. Specter to support the Employee Free Choice Act.

Click here.

Earlier this week, several experts appeared before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions to tell senators why the Employee Free Choice Act is so crucial.

Watch video highlights from the hearing here.

Cynthia Estlund, a law professor at the New York University School of Law, points out that the bill would fix current labor law’s “wholly inadequate response to employers’ fiercely aggressive and often illegal response to union organizing drives.”

Lawrence Mishel of the Economic Policy Institute testified on the larger benefits for workers:

By reducing the opportunity for employers to intimidate and discourage workers from unionizing after they have reached a collective decision to do so, the Employee Free Choice Act can help restore and spread the benefits that unions bring to workers and the economy.

It's not just the experts who understand the importance of this bill. The stories of workers like Ivo Camilo and Bill Lawhorn show that some businesses will continue to intimidate workers who want to form unions unless the Employee Free Choice Act becomes law.

Tell Sen. Specter to support the Employee Free Choice Act. Click here to take action:

The Employee Free Choice Act will restore a level playing field for workers and employers. It will strengthen penalties against companies that block workers' freedom to choose for ourselves whether to form unions and bargain. It will bring in mediation and arbitration when employees and employers cannot reach a first contract. And it will allow working people to form unions when a majority signs authorization cards—without the conflict, disruption and intimidation employers routinely inflict on us now.

Thank you for supporting the Employee Free Choice Act.

Sincerely,
Working America

P.S. Learn more about the Employee Free Choice Act and see videos of workers like Ivo Camilo, Nikkia Parish and Bill Lawhorn at the AFL-CIO’s Employee Free Choice Act website here.

It sounds like Bob Casey is definitely on board with the EFCA, but to contact him anyway on this and other matters, click here.