Give unions a chance

There was a time when, all too often, a man told a woman that he knew what was best for her, despite her opinion and after not even listening to her. Today, we know that such acts are both wrong and detrimental to our society, as women’s freedom and empowerment have made for a richer and more vibrant country.

Similar acts of patronizing are occurring right now in the U.S. Senate regarding the Employee Free Choice Act, the most significant labor legislation in 70 years. Numerous senators are telling workers that we are all wrong about how to build our worker organizations (unions) and that they know best. According to news reports, Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins are in the process of joining this group.

I have spoken with workers and organizers in just about all the significant organizing campaigns in the past five years and we can’t find one example of Sens. Snowe and Collins having talked directly to workers and our unions about the experience of organizing a union under today’s rules.

So, as far as we can tell, the senators didn’t speak with any of the 23 DHL workers who were fired while organizing a union in 2005. After signing cards authorizing an election, they spent two months dealing with constant intimidation from their managers. Ultimately they were fired for their support of the union. When the election finally took place, the workers had to make a choice – but it wasn’t free or fair.

They haven’t spoken with workers at Central Maine Power who are currently trying to form a union. They’ve already voted in favor of a union. They thought once they did, they were assured of a first contract. In fact, one-third of the time, after workers vote to form a union, they never get the first contract. Central Maine Power continues the stall tactics it has used for a year and a half.

Forming a union means gaining a voice and dignity at work and often it’s a way to enter the middle class. So, it’s no wonder that close to 60 million American workers – including scores of thousands right here in Maine – would join a union tomorrow if they could.

Yet, like the stories at DHL and CMP as well as many other campaigns in Maine, labor law in this country is broken.

A bill called the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) would fix some of these problems and allow workers to form unions to bargain for better work conditions free from intimidation. Penalties would be increased for employers who broke labor laws; deadlocked contract negotiations would be referred to arbitration; and workers could indicate their desire for a union by a majority signing cards to that effect. Responsible employers like Cingular already allow workers to form unions through the card-check system. With unions, workers over the decades have moved out of economic uncertainty and into the middle class. EFCA puts the question of forming a union more in the hands of the worker and not management, exactly where it should be.

EFCA passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 241 to 185, with bipartisan support. It is now before the Senate, where it is supposed to be taken up this week. EFCA needs the backing of 60 members to end debate.

We have tried to set up a conversation directly with our senators. We sent more than 6,000 postcards and made hundreds of phone calls to our senators, asking them to vote for EFCA. Instead we have spoken with several aides, who, although polite and welcoming, have been unfamiliar with legislation and apparently not involved in formulating policy.

Worker organizations such as unions and worker centers and their allied groups virtually without exception support EFCA as a better way to build worker organizations. We, the workers and those who work for and with them, believe it is better for us.

The Employee Free Choice Act is also a community issue. Civil rights, religious, anti-poverty, and environmental groups have all rallied behind this bill. The freedom to form a union to bargain for better wages and benefits is a fundamental freedom in our society. We know it is better for the economy and society when workers are treated with respect and dignity and not like interchangeable machine parts without feelings or rights.

Who are Collins and Snowe listening to on EFCA? A fair guess would be business groups who have an economic interest in keeping labor cheap and pliable. But instead of exposing their true motives, these groups pretend to be looking out for workers’ best interests.

Sens. Snowe and Collins are supposed to vote for our interests, not identify them for us. We invite them to sit down and listen to workers who have put their time and energy into building a union, workers like the ones at CMP and DHL. Then when the senators vote on EFCA, they’ll truly be doing their job of representing the workers of Maine, not patronizing them.

Jack McKay is president of the Greater Bangor Area Central Labor Council.