More often than not, when there's a discussion about women and work it revolves around mommy-war type arguments. Are women hurting their children by working? Are women hurting themselves and their children by pushing back having children so they can pursue a career first? We all know how that conversation goes. Today I want to talk about something else - I want to talk about how we can create a better work environment and a better paycheck for women (really, for everyone).
Over at Communications Workers for America's blog, Michael Whitney reports that "joining a union raises a woman's wages and benefits on par with having a college education." This is great news - and I love that it connects two of the things I deeply care about - Feminism and Labor.
Here's some details:
The report, "Unions and Upward Mobility for Women Workers," (pdf) found that unionized women workers earned, on average, 11.2 percent more than their non-union peers. In addition, women in unions were much more likely to have health insurance benefits and a pension plan.
"For women, joining a union makes as much sense as going to college," said John Schmitt, a Senior Economist at CEPR and the author of the study. "All else equal, joining a union raises a woman's wage as much as a full-year of college, and a union raises the chances a woman has health insurance by more than earning a four-year college degree."
We know that unions increase wages and help ensure that workers are able to get health care - and we also know that union membership isn't now what it once was. So, how do we increase union membership? How do we help workers organize and join unions or form their own? We pass the Employee Free Choice Act. You know, the one Trapper John talked about today in his post, Daily Kos How We Got Knocked Down, and How Employee Free Choice Can Get Us Back on Our Feet. Read his piece if you haven't already, but I'll note that the most important thing I took away from it was actually in the link I just provided - the fact that 60 million U.S. workers would join a union if they could. That's a lot of workers! I bet half of them (or maybe more than half) are women!
What exactly IS the Employee Free Choice Act? Change to Win sums it up for us:
The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) respects that the right to join a union is a fundamental freedom, just like freedom of speech or religion, and that employees should be able to do so without interference from management.
- Majority Rules, Not the Boss: Currently, a majority of workers can sign up for a union, but the company can veto that decision and demand an election. This allows the company to fire or harass workers, and threaten that it will close the workplace, in order to coerce workers into voting against a union. Under EFCA, if a majority of employees sign cards indicating they want a union, the company has to recognize the union, as long as it is certified by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
- Fair Resolution of First Contract Disputes: Now, even when workers have won the right to be represented by a union, and even though both sides are required to bargain in good faith, companies can drag out the first contract negotiation process for years. EFCA creates a fair process for resolving first contract disputes.
- Strong Remedies to Protect Workers’ Rights: Currently, companies face only minimal penalties if they violate employees’ rights to form a union or negotiate a first contract. EFCA would level the playing field by requiring the NLRB to take immediate legal action to reinstate workers fired for union activity and assess triple damages against companies that punish or fire employees for engaging in protected organizing activities.
The Economic Policy Institute brings us more details on how unions help women. Here are just a few of the benefits of union membership (click to read for more information and a lot more detail):
- Unions reduce wage inequality because they raise wages more for low- and middle-wage workers than for higher-wage workers, more for blue-collar than for white-collar workers, and more for workers who do not have a college degree.
- The most sweeping advantage for unionized workers is in fringe benefits. Unionized workers are more likely than their nonunionized counterparts to receive paid leave, are approximately 18% to 28% more likely to have employer-provided health insurance, and are 23% to 54% more likely to be in employer-provided pension plans.
- Unionized workers receive more generous health benefits than nonunionized workers. They also pay 18% lower health care deductibles and a smaller share of the costs for family coverage. In retirement, unionized workers are 24% more likely to be covered by health insurance paid for by their employer.
- Unionized workers receive 26% more vacation time and 14% more total paid leave (vacations and holidays).
- Strong unions set a pay standard that nonunion employers follow. For example, a high school graduate whose workplace is not unionized but whose industry is 25% unionized is paid 5% more than similar workers in less unionized industries.
Amazingly enough, WIPP (Women Impacting Public Policy) has a post up asking for comments on the Employee Free Choice Act. Turns out, WIPP did a survey of members and found that many of them oppose Employee Free Choice. This is an organization that is run by women and describes itself this way:
The Voice for Women in Business in our Nation’s Capital
WIPP, Women Impacting Public Policy, Inc. is a national bipartisan public policy organization that advocates for and on behalf of women and minorities in business, strengthening their sphere of influence in the legislative process of our nation, creating economic opportunities and building bridges and alliances to other small business organizations.
I'm wondering how they're advocating for women and minorities in business and helping to create opportunities when many of their members are in opposition to a bill that would help women and minorities in business (and elsewhere). Leave a comment - I did. Don't hold your breath that they'll post it though, mine hasn't been posted yet.
Another reason (because some people need more) to support the Employee Free Choice Act and the very likely union membership boom that would result from its passage. Union members are more likely to vote for Democrats! If you care about party building (and I think it's clear that I do - and I hope you do too), then increasing union membership is a great plan. The American Prospect has an important article which can give you a sense of how much an impact unions can have on elections:
Molyneux surveyed 1,487 members of AFL-CIO unions -- about half in battleground states -- and compared the results with all voters. What he discovered is nothing short of astounding.
Fifty-seven percent of white men favored McCain, but 57 percent of white male union members favored Obama. White gun owners cast 68 percent of their votes for McCain, but 54 percent of white gun owners who are also union members preferred Obama. Among white weekly churchgoers, McCain scored a landslide, receiving 70 percent of their votes. But Obama had a slight edge (49 percent to 48 percent) among white weekly churchgoers who were union members. Similarly, 58 percent of white non-college graduates voted for McCain, but 60 percent of white union members who didn't graduate from college tilted to Obama. Overall, 53 percent of white women cast ballots for McCain, but Molyneux found that a whopping 72 percent of white women union members favored Obama.
These numbers show the tremendous power of grass-roots organizing. Nationwide, according to Molyneux, 67 percent of union members of all races -- and 69 percent in swing states -- supported Obama.
Ladies and gentlemen, I think the evidence is pretty clear - union members, particularly women, voted for Obama (and very likely, for other Democrats) by large percentages. An increase in union membership is very likely to increase the number of well-educated voters out there.
But Elise, the economy is in recession! We're crashing! We can't pass Employee Free Choice Act now - it's bad for business!
Wrong:
Contrary to business propaganda, unions are good for the economy. A recent study by the nonprofit Economic Roundtable found that union workers in Los Angeles County earn 27 percent more than nonunion workers in the same job. The increased wages for the 800,000 union workers -- 17 percent of the labor force -- adds $7.2 billion a year in pay. As these workers spend their wages on food, clothing, child care, car and home repairs, and other items, their additional buying power creates 64,800 jobs and $11 billion in economic output. Many economists argue that any strategy Obama and Congress use to revitalize the economy should make higher wages -- and stronger unions -- a centerpiece.
Nearly 65,000 people in LA County have jobs solely because union workers are able to spend the money they earn. That is an economy at work. That's how we're going to get out of a recession.
At the moment, the wingnuts are organizing and smearing the Employee Free Choice Act every chance they get. You can find their talking points here. We're fighting a serious enemy here - they are organized. They have websites full of misinformation and lies. They have pundits and journalists in their pockets - and the networks, are on their side.
We have an uphill battle ahead, but the good news is we just organized our neighborhoods and beyond for the last 6 months (at least), so at this point (for some of us) it's just a matter of mobilizing our troops and giving them the information they need to get the message out and push for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. For those of you who were members of local Obama groups - use those tools President-elect Obama gave you and contact your group about this issue. Have a list of friends you habitually email about issues? Spread the word to them and ask them to pass it along to their own friends. Post about Employee Free Choice on Facebook and MySpace and Twitter. Write a Letter to the Editor using the DNC tool - it allows you to enter your zip code and write to every local newspaper. Let's take the lessons of organizing and put them to use to help women and men across the country - let's organize to help make the Employee Free Choice Act a reality.
Here are some sample editorials and letters to the editor:
Support for the Employee Free Choice Act - from the Denver Post.
Employee Free Choice Act promises freedom, fairness to working Americans - from The Tennesseean. Check out the comments there to see what sort of responses you can expect to get - be prepared to reply to comments like those - remember that there are readers out there who won't comment - make your point to them because they may have an open mind even where the commenter does not.
Get your talking points here:
Baratunde Thurston (aka Jack Turner) over at Jack and Jill Politics talks about the benefits of the Employee Free Choice Act. Check out his chart.
Hillary Clinton's statement from the Senate is another good place to get talking points.
Talking to non-union workers and others about why Employee Free Choice is so important? Check out Labor Law Reform Not Just For Unions. This article emphasizes that this is a fight for ALL progressives to take on.
Keith Kelleher, provides further detail about what's at stake over at Progress Illinois.
Sign the petition to start, but please do more than that - let's work for this bill.