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Retirees' Stake in the Employee Free Choice Act

The U.S. economy is in a mess. Banks are failing, businesses are closing their doors and the stock market is running on empty. Average Americans are losing their jobs, their homes and their retirement security. The rampant greed of years past has resulted in an ever widening gap between rich and poor. Clearly, we need to raise stagnant wages and give workers a fair shake, but how do we do it? The answer is to strengthen unions by passing the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).

The Employee Free Choice Act will help unions organize by making it harder for employers to intimidate workers. It will increase penalties for employers who violate worker rights and give workers the right to choose which union-selection method best ensures free choice in their workplace: a National Labor Relations Board election OR a majority sign-up (also known as "card check".) If employers refuse to negotiate first contracts, the Employee Free Choice Act will permit mediation and binding arbitration -- the only fair way to settle disputes.

Today's system is NOT fair to workers. Take a look at these facts:

Workers who try to organize are fired 25 percent of the time. Fear is justified.

• In organizing campaigns, 78 percent of private employers require supervisors to deliver an anti-union message to employees.
• For 44 percent of workers who win union elections, their employer refuses to negotiate a first contract and is able to get away with it!
• Nearly 60 million workers say they'd join a union if they had the chance.
   

But EFCA isn't just a workers' issue. The current obstacles to unionization affect families and communities, too, including retirees. Following are some of the reasons that retirees should urge Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

1. Stronger Unions Mean a Stronger Voice for Retirees. Unions are the nation's leading advocates for pensions, Social Security, employer-paid health care coverage, Medicare and Medicaid. Whatever strengthens unions will also help to protect and improve the quality of life of older Americans.
2. Unionized Workers Pump Money into the Economy. Union members earn 28 percent more, on average, than non-union workers, which means they can purchase more goods and services and save more of their income. This keeps businesses open, banks lending, and our national and local economies humming.
3. Unionization Helps the Community. Unionized workers make more, so they pay more in taxes. These taxes help maintain important public services such as education, trash collection, hospitals, water treatment, roads, buses, libraries, museums and other pillars of a stable community. In general, communities with strong unions have higher living standards for everyone.
4. Unions Promote Economic Justice. Between 2000 and 2007, median annual income for working-age households fell an unprecedented $2,000. In 2005, 25 percent of all workers earned poverty level wages -- a higher percentage than in 2001. Meanwhile, corporate profits more than doubled (2001-2007). The average large-company CEO earned more in one workday than an average worker earned in 52 weeks. Greater unionization can help reverse these inequities and restore a strong middle class -- the true measure of a healthy society.
5. Our Children and Grandchildren Will Need Good Wages. Today, only 12 percent of workers are unionized, compared with 35 percent in the 1950s. If this trend continues, tomorrow's workers will pay the price: lower wages, no pensions or health benefits, and little political power to change the status quo. Is this what we want for our children and grandchildren? The Employee Free Choice Act will give us a fighting chance to put our nation back on track.
    

"I urge every AFSCME retiree to talk with your children and grandchildren about the Employee Free Choice Act. Your own life experience will illustrate the value of a strong labor movement. Be sure to explain how EFCA will help rebuild the middle class and jumpstart the economy and why every worker deserves the chance to bargain for decent wages and benefits.

"Tell them their future, and the future of a free and prosperous America, depends on the future of unions."

— International President Gerald W. McEntee

For more information, contact:
AFSCME Retirees Department
1625 L Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036-5687
202-429-1274

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