The Employee Free Choice Act: A Faithful Response to Lift Up Workers' Rights
Workers Under Attack
As people of faith, we recognize the dignity of all people and all workers. Our religious traditions affirm the right of workers to freely organize themselves to improve their wages, benefits and working conditions and assert the right to a voice on the job.
But what do you think would happen if you tried to organize a union at your work?
If you are like most Americans, you suspect that you would be fired, harassed or penalized in some fashion for supporting a union. You are probably right.
In the U.S., bullying attacks on workers occur in over 80 percent of the workplaces in which workers seek to organize a union, with companies hiring "union avoidance" consultants to direct campaigns of fear, harassment and intimidation. Employers threaten to close plants if workers vote for a union, they fire the union leaders and other workers who openly support a union (with chilling effects on organizing efforts), they harangue workers on paid time about how bad unions are and occasionally they beg workers to give them another chance.
Intimidation is often successful-while the majority of workers have indicated in polls that they would support a union if they could freely chose to do so, many union elections held after months of anti-union warfare end in voters choosing not to unionize. These elections are far from free and fair contests. They are conducted with fraud, contempt for legal restraints and heavy-handed tactics that depend on employers' abilities to play on worker vulnerabilities to losing their jobs.
In addition, workers are afraid that even if they vote for a union, they may never get a contract. Again, workers are right: over a third of those workplaces where workers vote for a union for the first time will never get a contract because employers simply drag their feet and refuse to negotiate in meaningful ways.
How Are We Called as People of Faith?
Our religious traditions profoundly address the need for freedom in the workplace. Oppression of workers is an insult to human dignity and an affront to God. (To learn more about what your faith says on this human rights issue, visit www.iwj.org and download What Faith Groups Say about the Right to Organize).
The story of Moses and the struggle to liberate the Israelites from their Egyptian slave-masters has inspired some of the world's great freedom struggles, including the U.S. civil rights movement.
Moses, the servant of God, was indeed a civil rights leader and an immigrants' rights leader, but he was also the Bible's first labor leader. Pharaoh placed slave-masters over the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly, "and they made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field" (Exodus 1:14). Even though Moses was raised in Pharaoh's court, he slew an Egyptian taskmaster who was whipping a Hebrew slave and took flight. In response to the cries for help by the Israelites groaning under their burdens, God told Moses to return to Egypt and lead the campaign for freedom.
Moses was reluctant to go back to Egypt, for fear that he was not a gifted speaker. He begged God to send someone else. But God chose him to organize the people and challenge Pharaoh, telling Moses that His power would be with him. After meeting with the leaders of the Hebrew slaves, Moses' first demand to Pharaoh was for a three-day holiday. Pharaoh and the slave-masters refused and made the working conditions worse-the people had to make bricks without being given straw. Thus began the escalating set of problems for Pharaoh and the leadership in Egypt.
Although Exodus is primarily a story of salvation, of God's power and deliverance, it also clearly addresses the need to treat workers fairly. God hears and answers the cries of those who are oppressed. We too must stand up for workers basic fundamental rights.
The Employee Free Choice Act
Because we are compelled by faith to aid workers in their struggle for justice, Interfaith Worker Justice joins with people of faith from across the country in strongly supporting the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). In response to the Pharaoh-like action of current employers who set bullying taskmasters against those who seek improvements in the conditions of work, EFCA promises workers a chance to unionize without going through the meat grinder of the current flawed system. EFCA, which passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 241-185 on March 1, 2007, has three main components. It:
• Allows workers to form unions when a majority signs union authorization cards.
• Increases fines for employers who break labor laws.
• Provides for binding arbitration in workplaces where contracts can't be agreed upon within six months.
EFCA makes real the principle that the free choice about whether to form unions should belong to workers.
Why a Union?
Although workers in 2007 are not expected to make bricks without straw, too many U.S. workers are employed in jobs that don't pay wages that can support families, deny workers access to health care and retirement savings, expose workers to hazardous working conditions and disregard families' need for flexible schedules and sick days. Workers, especially workers in low-wage jobs, seek to improve their conditions by organizing unions to help them stand up for their rights.
Many of us are conflicted about the role of unions in U.S. society. Some people of faith are employers, and religious bodies own institutions such as hospitals and schools that employ hundreds or thousands of workers. People have heard stories about unions that do not ardently defend their members' interest, and many others know little about unions and how they operate. We forget that unions at their core are workers' organizations that defend the dignity and livelihoods of working men and women.
The reality is that most low- and middle-income workers benefit from unions, even if they are not members. Through collective bargaining, unions set pay and benefit standards for entire regions and industries. Workers, through their unions, have been the prime movers in winning the eight-hour day, overtime pay, the Family and Medical Leave Act, Occupational Safety and Health Act, Americans with Disabilities Act and most other reforms that protect average working families. People form unions to end everyday workplace oppression, such as bullying supervision; combat wage theft and toxic workplace conditions; win the basis for family support, including decent wages, pensions and health benefits; and give themselves a voice in the workplace. In surveys done over the past 50 years, union workers receive significantly better pay, benefits and working conditions.
Workers Deserve a Free Choice!
Interfaith Worker Justice, the nation's leading religious organization supporting improved wages, benefits and working conditions for workers in low-wage jobs, strongly supports the Employee Free Choice Act, which must now be passed by the U.S. Senate. We invite you to:
1) Pray for all workers who seek to improve conditions in their workplaces.
2) Pray for all employers that they might seek to reflect God in their business decisions.
3) Write or call your two Senators asking them to support the Employee Free Choice Act. Call (202) 224-3121 and ask the switchboard operator to connect you directly with the Senate office you request.