There are plenty of reasons to pass the Employee Free Choice Act: preserving the Constitutional right to association and the right to collective bargaining, doing something about corporate greed and CEO pay, doing something about 25 years of wage stagnation, the fact that union workplaces are safer and union members are more likely to have health care and secure pensions etc, etc.
But another reason is to protect workers who attempt to organize from intimidation, harassment, interrogation, coercion, suspensions and firings.
Billy 's story is one of many that demonstrates why we need the Employee Free Choice Act.
He had the opportunity to share it with a large group of crucial allies from around the country: members of the DNC Executive Committee as well as members of the Association of State Democratic Chairs.
Here are a few excerpts:
On why...
"I asked our managers, "What would you do if you were in my shoes? What would you do if you didn’t have medical benefits when you retired, if your pay wasn’t keeping up, if your insurance premiums were constantly rising, if you had to witness blatant favoritism every day? And on top of all that, you didn’t have a say in any of it?" He couldn’t answer. But I bet if he did, he’d say he’d do what we did and that’s try to form a union."
On what happened...
"I’m one of roughly 31,000 cases in 2005 when management illegally threatened, coerced or fired a worker. Unless you’ve ever experienced an organizing drive for yourself, I think it’s hard to even imagine what goes on. In my experience (and clearly I’m not the only one), the company has the power and they often abuse it."
On what’s needed...
"Over the last 60 years, and especially during the last 30, our labor laws have been whittled away. Now it’s time to fix them, to even the playing field and give workers the opportunity to organize. I don’t think we should stand by as corporate America flexes its muscle and tries to defeat a bill that restores fundamental rights to workers."
His story was published as an op-ed in both the Daily Press and the Virginian Pilot.