Letter to the Editor

Pass the Employee Free Choice Act

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Dear Editor,

There is a lot of talk about the Employee Free Choice Act right now around the country. However, I want to share some FACTS with you. Kate Bronfenbrenner, the Director of Labor Education at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, recently released a report that found it is standard practice for employers to threaten, harass, and retaliate against their employees that want to form a union.

The most striking revelation in this study from my point of view, found that in 2007, 52% of workers who succeeded in forming a union still did not have a contract after one year. This report also revealed that from January 1999 to December 2003, 34% of employers discharged workers during the NLRB election process. These statistics would not be acceptable in any other situation, would we accept 34% of voters in our political elections losing their jobs because they did not vote the same way as their bosses? I think not and I think American labor laws are broken.

The Employee Free Choice Act would address the problems highlighted in Ms. Bronfenbrenner's report and would finally restore the rights for workers that are promised by the National Labor Relations Act. I am asking everyone to look deeper into this issue. Workers should have the right to choose to join a union free from intimidation and without fear of losing their jobs, and after we examine this new study we see that is not the case.

We've let the top 1% run this country for almost a decade and things are not going well. It's time we have all have a say on our communities, our economy, and our workplaces. Pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

H. Jon Faust

Peru, IN