It’s no secret that the percentage of the American workforce represented by labor unions has been on the decline in recent decades. And it’s no surprise that the middle class has been struggling economically during this same period of time.

The best hope for workers to improve their situation is joining with their brothers and sisters to bargain with their employers for better working conditions, wages and benefits. One of organized labor’s top priorities in the legislative arena is the leveling of the playing field when it comes to giving workers the right to belong to a labor union. The Employee Free Choice Act promises to do just that.

As it stands now, the cards are stacked against unions in the favor of the employers during any campaign to organize workers into a bargaining unit so that they may enjoy the benefits of union representation. Workers who try to exercise their legal right to organize in their workplace are often threatened, harassed, intimidated—even fired! The National Labor Relations Act is woefully inadequate in its stated goal of protecting these workers’ rights.

The Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 800) passed in the U.S. House of Representatives by a vote of 241-185. Reps. Thomas Allen and Michael Michaud of Maine, Reps. Paul Hodes and Carol Shea-Porter of New Hampshire all signed on as sponsors and voted in favor of the measure.

The Employee Free Choice Act would help to restore workers’ rights by doing the following:

· Establish stronger penalties for violation of employee rights
· Providing mediation and arbitration to help ensure a first contract and thwart employer refusal to bargain in good faith
· Allowing employees to form unions by signing authorization cards, often referred to as a “card check,” to help avoid anti-democratic employer coercion

The national AFL-CIO has invested considerable resources in support of this Employee Free Choice Act. They sent more than 5 million emails to online activists and held meetings with community leaders and members of Congress in over 100 cities to push for passage of the bill. In response, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other anti-union organizations have sought to use lies and distortions to portray the legislation as a violation of workers’ rights.

Republicans in the U.S. Senate have pledged to stop the legislation through parliamentary maneuvering. Nevertheless, the AFL-CIO is expected to lobby our United States senators to ask them to support the bill. President Bush, consistent with his longstanding animosity toward organized labor, has promised a veto if it reaches his desk.