The bill, H.R. 800, would require employers to recognize a union when a majority of workers sign up. This simple process would eliminate many of the delays and illegal employer abuses that occur in the current bureaucratic election process.
"This legislation takes a major step toward reducing income inequality and strengthening the middle class in America by making it more difficult for employers to prevent unions from forming," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.
By a 26-19 party-line vote, the House Education and Labor Committee approved the bill Feb. 14 on a 26-19 vote. That same day, Vice President Dick Cheney said President Bush would veto the legislation if it passes Congress.
Proponents, however, have kept up the heat. Last week, scores of rallies, meetings and other events were held across the country during the Congressional recess. A resolution supporting the federal legislation is moving in the Minnesota Legislature and lawmakers in other states are backing similar measures.
The five Democrats representing Minnesota in the U.S. House – Keith Ellison, Betty McCollum, James Oberstar, Collin Peterson and Tim Walz – are among the 233 co-sponsors of the Employee Free Choice Act.
The current union recognition system, set up when the National Labor Relations Act was passed in 1935, is not working. Employers routinely violate the law to try to prevent workers from joining unions.
William Gould, a former chairman of the National Labor Relations Board, admitted the agency’s system of secret ballots is broken. Gould, now a law professor at Stanford University, told the Chicago Tribune, "It is the old problem of justice delayed is justice denied."
Gould cited figures that show the NLRB process took an average of 802 days—more than two years—to resolve a disputed election in 2005 and nearly three-and-a-half years (1,232 days) in cases dealing with labor law violations.
This article contains information from the AFL-CIO news blog, http://blog.aflcio.org
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The bill, H.R. 800, would require employers to recognize a union when a majority of workers sign up. This simple process would eliminate many of the delays and illegal employer abuses that occur in the current bureaucratic election process.
"This legislation takes a major step toward reducing income inequality and strengthening the middle class in America by making it more difficult for employers to prevent unions from forming," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.
By a 26-19 party-line vote, the House Education and Labor Committee approved the bill Feb. 14 on a 26-19 vote. That same day, Vice President Dick Cheney said President Bush would veto the legislation if it passes Congress.
Proponents, however, have kept up the heat. Last week, scores of rallies, meetings and other events were held across the country during the Congressional recess. A resolution supporting the federal legislation is moving in the Minnesota Legislature and lawmakers in other states are backing similar measures.
The five Democrats representing Minnesota in the U.S. House – Keith Ellison, Betty McCollum, James Oberstar, Collin Peterson and Tim Walz – are among the 233 co-sponsors of the Employee Free Choice Act.
The current union recognition system, set up when the National Labor Relations Act was passed in 1935, is not working. Employers routinely violate the law to try to prevent workers from joining unions.
William Gould, a former chairman of the National Labor Relations Board, admitted the agency’s system of secret ballots is broken. Gould, now a law professor at Stanford University, told the Chicago Tribune, "It is the old problem of justice delayed is justice denied."
Gould cited figures that show the NLRB process took an average of 802 days—more than two years—to resolve a disputed election in 2005 and nearly three-and-a-half years (1,232 days) in cases dealing with labor law violations.
This article contains information from the AFL-CIO news blog, http://blog.aflcio.org