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Ask Senator Specter to Support EFCA
We urge Senator Specter to once again provide his crucial support to the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). EFCA would level the playing field and make it easier for workers to join unions and negotiate fair contracts. Senator Specter co-sponsored EFCA in 2003, but reversed himself after being pressured by big business. Let him know that Pennsylvania workers are counting on him to do the right thing by supporting EFCA.
| Sample Letter for Campaign |
Subject: Stand with Pennsylvania Workers; Support EFCA
Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,
I urge you to once again support The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). EFCA is an important piece of the economic recovery for middle class families.
As a new study by professor Kate Bronfenbrenner shows, employer opposition to workers' efforts to form unions has intensified and become more punitive than in the past. Employers are more than twice as likely to use tactics like threats or actual firings in their campaigns to thwart workers' organizing efforts.
These are the same corporations who have mounted a massive campaign to distort and defeat EFCA.
In reality, EFCA will only level the playing field. The need for labor reform is as great today as it was in 2003, when you co-sponsored EFCA.
Pennsylvania workers are counting on you to stand with them. Help get our country on the right track by supporting EFCA.
Sincerely,
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Campaign Launched:
May 26, 2009
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The Problem: Employers Silence Workers Who Attempt to Form Unions.
Under the current labor law system, employers often use a combination of legal and illegal methods to silence employees who attempt to form unions and bargain for better wages and working conditions. When faced with organizing drives, 25 percent of employers fire at least one pro-union worker; 51 percent threaten to close a worksite if the union prevails; and, 91 percent force employees to attend one-on-one anti-union meetings with their supervisors.
The Impact: Economic Opportunity Stolen from America's Working Families.
Protecting the right to form unions is about maintaining the American middle class. It's no coincidence that as union membership numbers fall there are growing numbers of jobs with low pay, poor benefits, and little to no security. More than half of U.S. workers - 60 million - say they would join a union right now if they could. Why? They know that coming together to bargain with employers over wages, benefits, and working conditions is the best path to getting ahead. Without labor law reform, economic opportunity for America's working families will continue to erode.
The Solution: Labor Law Reform that Gives Workers a Free Choice and a Fair Chance.
EFCA would level the playing field by strengthening penalties against offending employers; requiring mediation and arbitration to help employers and employees reach a first contract in a reasonable period of time; and, permitting workers to form a union through "majority sign-up," a process in which workers present signed authorization cards as demonstration of their choice to belong to a union.
The Results: Employer/Employee Partnerships Are Working at Top U.S. Companies.
The provisions of EFCA mirror successful strategies already in use by industry-leading employers such as Cingular Wireless and Kaiser Permanente. These companies have replaced adversarial relationships pitting employers against workers' unions with cooperative labor relations models that include voluntary recognition of unions through majority sign-up and fair contracts. Cingular, the nation's top wireless carrier and Wall Street darling continues to boost profits and advance a positive labor relations model enabling its union employees to grow.
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