America's middle class is disappearing, good jobs are vanishing and health care coverage and retirement security are slipping out of reach. To get ahead economically, working people need the freedom to choose for ourselves whether to join together in unions to bargain for better wages and benefits. But the current system for forming unions and bargaining is broken. Corporations routinely intimidate, harass, coerce and even fire workers for trying.

The Employee Free Choice Act would change that by restoring workers' freedom to form unions and bargain—without management interference.

Please sign the "Online Petition" and tell your senators to support the Employee Free Choice Act.

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

I have signed the "Online Card" to show my support for the Employee Free Choice Act (S. 1041), which would level the playing field for workers and employers and help rebuild America's middle class.

America's working people are struggling to make ends meet while our middle class is disappearing. The best opportunity we have to get ahead economically is by uniting with co-workers to bargain with our employers for better wages, benefits and working conditions.

More than half of U.S. workers--nearly 60 million--say they would join a union right now if they could.

Every day, corporations intimidate, harass, coerce and even fire people who try to organize unions and bargain. This is an urgent crisis, blocking our free will and our ability to get ahead.

Again, I urge you to support the Employee Free Choice Act.

Signed by:

Campaign Launched:
May 22, 2007

America’s workers want to form unions. Research shows nearly 60 million would form a union tomorrow if given the chance.

Too few ever get that chance because employers routinely block their efforts to form unions—and our current legal system is too broken to stop them. As many as one-quarter of employers illegally fire workers who try to form unions.

The Employee Free Choice Act would give workers a fair chance to form unions to improve their lives by:

• Allowing them to form unions by signing cards authorizing union representation.
• Providing mediation and arbitration for first-contract disputes.
• Establishing stronger penalties for violation of employee rights when workers seek to form a union and during first-contract negotiations.

In the 110th Congress, the Employee Free Choice Act has widespread support.

More than three-quarters of Americans—77 percent—support strong laws that give employees the freedom to make their own choice about whether to have a union in their workplace without interference from management (PDF).

Allowing working people to choose for themselves whether to have a union is the key step toward rebuilding America’s middle class. Union membership brings better wages and benefits and a real voice on the job (PDF). It’s no accident that the 25-year decline in workers’ wages in our country has paralleled a 25-year slide in the size of the America’s unions.

The Employee Free Choice Act would put democracy back into the workplace. Majority sign-up would ensure the decision whether to form a union was made by majority choice, not by the employer unilaterally.

Workers can still vote under the Employee Free Choice Act. At any time, if 30 percent of the workers want an election, they can have one. And once they have a union, workers also vote to elect their union representatives.

The Employee Free Choice Act has the support of hundreds of respected organizations and individuals—major religious denominations, academics and civil and human rights groups and others.

The AFL-CIO union movement is working in many ways to restore good jobs, health care and retirement security—but passing the Employee Free Choice Act is our top priority because we cannot create balance for working people or rebuild the middle class unless workers genuinely have the freedom to form unions for a better life.