8333-09 Employee Free Choice Act

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RESOLUTION NO. 8333-09 BY: Antonio, Bullock, Butler, Dever, Madigan, Powers, Summers. A RESOLUTION urging Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act to protect and preserve for America's workers their freedom to choose for themselves whether or not to form a union. WHEREAS, in 1935, the United States established, by law, that workers must be free to form unions; and WHEREAS, the freedom to form or join a union is internationally recognized by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a fundamental human right; and WHEREAS, the free choice to join with others and bargain for better wages and benefits is essential to economic opportunity and good living standards; and WHEREAS, unions benefit communities by strengthening living standards, stabilizing tax bases, promoting equal treatment and enhancing civic participation; and WHEREAS, states in which more people are union members are states with higher wages, better benefits and better schools; and WHEREAS, unions help raise workers' pay and narrow the income gap for minorities and women, by increasing median weekly earnings by 31 percent for union women workers, 36 percent for African American workers, 46 percent for Latino workers and 8 percent for Asian American workers; and WHEREAS, union members are also more likely to have health coverage and guaranteed defined-benefit pensions (80 percent of private-sector union workers have employer-provided health insurance, compared with only 49 percent of nonunion workers, and 68 percent of union workers have defined-benefit pension plans, compared with 14 percent of nonunion workers); and WHEREAS, workers across the nation are routinely denied the freedom to form unions and bargain for a better life, with 25 percent of private-sector employers in organizing campaigns illegally firing at least one worker for union activity; and WHEREAS, 77 percent of the public believes it is important to have strong laws protecting the freedom of workers to make their own decision about having a union; and 60 percent of workers would join a union if they had the chance; and WHEREAS, employers often refuse to bargain fairly after workers form a union by dragging out first contract bargaining for up to two years in 45 percent of successful campaigns; and WHEREAS, each year millions of dollars are spent to frustrate workers' efforts to form unions and 92 percent of private-sector employers force employees to attend mandatory anti-union meetings; and