Opinion/Editorial

   

             The opposing argument is that the Employee Free Choice Act takes the right to a secret ballot away from employees and forcing them the make their choices out in the open.  This is simply not true. As the laws stand now you can have the NLRB hold a secret ballot by having 30% of the employees signing a petition asking for one.  Under the Employee Free Choice Act you can have the NLRB hold a secret ballot election by having  30% of the employees signing a petition asking for one.  If it looks the same it’s because it is the same.   Now if you don’t want to wait though the process of setting up a secret ballot, then agreeing though the ballot to have a collective bargaining unit, then deciding to organize with their own resources or joining an existing union, then finally actually bargaining.  If you don’t want to use that process under today’s laws you can sign a different card that waves the secret ballot process and unionizes the employees if 50% plus one signs this waver.   Under the Employee Free Choice Act the same process occurs.  The difference is under the current laws even though by law the employer must remain impartial to the choice they have the right to veto the employees and force a secret ballot election on the employees.  This is where most unfair/illegal labor practices occur.

                         So the fact is that those who pretend to be fighting for the rights of workers really are only trying to keep lopsided rights for the employer.  Once the employer Veto the choice they start a process of firing, punishment, and intimidation.  Breaking up the process of unionization is a 4 billion dollar a year industry.   The Employee Free Choice Act not only takes away the opportunity for companies to punish workers for exercising their rights as Americans, it further punishes employer who treat Americans unfairly. Raising fines above the current punishment laws where companies have shown no restraint from using tactics that are illegal and unjust. 

                         The Employee Free Choice Act is the most important choice our senator will make towards restoring the middle class and strengthen our economy to a where it was its strongest.  After the Great Depression Union organization rose to 40% in the private sector.  The Nuclear family was able to get by with only one paycheck, leaving the other two hands to care for the family. Our Great country was 1^st in the world in skilled worker wages. At that time the wealthy 1% had 8% of the wealth.   Corporate America started his war on union labor, spending billions on changing the law through lobbyist, and changing unions good name with workplace propaganda. The corporate campaign has been very successful.  It successfully reversed the numbers; the amount of companies unionized is now 7% and the wealthy 1% now owns 40% of the wealth {still growing}.  Our County is now 14^th in the world in skilled worker wages.  This not only affects those workers earning smaller wages. It affects the whole country.  Welfare used to be a safety net for those who couldn't find jobs.  Now there are full time workers who qualify for money/healthcare while the company they work for earns major profits. While using the our government money to pay for the rest of its workers wages, CEOs of these companies take home tens of millions of dollars. In order to compete their competitors must lower the wages of its employees, acting as a victim of the Free Market Economy. But competing companies that have seen fit to unionize earn livable wages and still produce a profit for their share holders.  But with the fight against unions succeeding, wages are shrinking every day.

          Unions play an important role in the Free Market; without a Union in a particular industry the only way to access the worth of a job is how many people are willing to do it.  Never taking into account the level of skill, danger, or workload of the job.  With an ever growing population all industries are or will be flooded allowing the Market to drive down the cost of all jobs and further spreading the gap between rich and poor.  Without any intervention our Middle class will be crushed. 

          It is also important to that workers have the right to protect and access the skills of the trade they learn. The more a person learns a skill or trade, the less they understand the economics of it,{unless that trade is economics}.  For example; How many Professional baseball players do you think are qualified to be the CEO of a major corporation? I certainly can’t think of any.  It would be fair to say a person like Wade Boggs would have a very difficult time properly running or even understanding the economics of a large company.  As good of a player as he was on the field is probably equal to how bad he would be a boardroom.  I'm sure he would agree, that is why he hired an agent to represent him. Because just like it was Wades Boggs's job to catch and throw baseballs, it was his agent’s job to protect the economic worth of his skills. 

 

     Not all skills can bring in ten million dollars.   But they are all entitled to the same means of protection for their economic worth.  Working men can’t afford to hire an agent to protect their economic rights, so at times they band together collectively to hire an agent to protect their worth. I see nothing un-American, unfair, or weak about this. Neither does the United States Government.

 

               It is the right of every American to fairly asses the value of the services they provide in an even playing field.  I want to remind you that Union labor made a lot of things possible, 8 hour days, weekends, OSHA, NLRB, overtime..... 

 

     All these things were not offered in the Free Market economy until Unions fought for it.  What if all those brave men felt they only deserved what was offered? In the Ironworkers case we fought for safety more than we fought for wages.  

    If your argument is that these men should have left and found better paying and safer jobs.  Does that mean that because this company found people that will work {need to or not} on these jobs in these unsafe conditions that they are free from all sins?    

 

  As employees earn less the flow of money stagnates, causing recessions. The Proof that the weak wages cause American recessions is apparent in every downturn. When there is a recession the government throws the middle class and the poor a bone, with stimulus packages and more Earned Income Tax Credits. They know that if we get money to middle and poor they will spend it, and get money flowing again though the economy.  But the working class deserves more than a bone.  They are not the dogs of America; they are the bone- the back bone.  It’s time to let them feed themselves, it’s time to let them make choices without having to be brave enough to look illegal punishment in the eye. It’s time to make available the right choices for yourself, for your family, without fear, just simple reasoning.  It’s time for the Employee Free Choice Act 

 

 

 Peter C. Grosso

Member Iron Workers Local # 361