Wellstone Action!

posted by Erik Peterson

FEBRUARY 10, 2009

**We're reposting this critical piece (originally posted last December) about the message and strategy to pass the Employee Free Choice Act**

In all of the talk about economic recession, collapsing stock prices, Wall Street versus Main Street, and the best way to kick start the economy, let's not forget that the best path to the middle class and economic security is a good job with union representation.  Passing the Employee Free Choice Act will make it easier for workers to form unions when a majority of their coworkers sign cards saying they want to join.  It should be part of any comprehensive economic stimulus package to help revitalize the American middle class. 

In the midst of our last major economic collapse, in 1935, Congress recognized this fundamental link between organized workers and economic prosperity when they first protected the right of workers to organize.  "It is the policy of the United States...," they declared, "to encourage[e] the practice and procedure of collective bargaining and [to protect] the exercise by workers of full freedom of association, self organization, and designation of representatives of their own choosing...."  That is, to organize and join a union.  Congress saw clearly that the balance of power was tilted against workers toward big business, just as it is skewed today.  The Employee Free Choice Act will begin to restore some balance.

Talking EFCA

Over the past year, Wellstone Action has been working with a number of partners (The Communication Workers of America, AFL-CIO, Laborers, SEIU, and the Teamsters) providing training on how to talk with co-workers, neighbors and voters about the Employee Free Choice Act.  We have learned a number of lessons.

• Lesson 1: Workers understand what is at stake.  This is not an issue that is too esoteric or so "insider" that non-union workers won't be able to understand it.  According to the polls (see here and here), 53% of workers would join a union if they could.  They know they are working harder and slipping further behind.  And they understand the power and strength of numbers
  
  
• Lesson 2: Avoid jargon.  Most people do not understand unions, or National Labor Relations Board elections or collective bargaining.  They certainly do not know what the acronym EFCA means.  So find common ground and language.  Workers understand what's fair and that the tables are tilted against them.
• Lesson 3: Focus on the benefits of organizing, not the process.  Big business is focusing their message on protecting secret ballot elections (which 90% of employers oppose when actually faced with one!).  We should focus on the benefits of organizing for economic prosperity and on rebuilding the middle class.
• Lesson 4: Frame the discussion in terms of fairness.  It simply isn't fair, or democratic, when CEO's demand contracts for themselves and then fight workers who want the same.
• Lesson 5: EFCA restores balance. Most workers will agree that the system is broken and the economic rules favor business over workers.  The Employee Free Choice Act restores balance and a level playing field so workers have a voice, too. 
• Lesson 6: Focus on choice.  The Employee Free Choice Act does not take away anything - it adds another choice for union representation, one enjoyed by workers in most advanced industrial democracies.  Workers should be free to make their choice of whether to join a union, not the employer.  Most Americans have little experience with the intimidation and harassment that workers face when trying to organize.  31% of employers illegally fire union organizers; half threaten to close their business if employees form a union; 80% hire outside consultants to run anti-union campaigns; and 91% force employees to attend mandatory anti-union meetings. 
• Lesson 7: Connect the problem with a solution with an opportunity to take action.  If you ask workers whether the economy is working for them and if they feel powerful and listened to in their jobs, you'd get a whole litany of complaints.  That's where we can start, but the organizer's task is also to reframe this litany as a problem that collective action can help solve. 

For example: worker complaints can be summarized and reframed as "the problem is the system is broken and the rules are tilted to favor companies who routinely fire and harass workers who want a union.  And when fewer workers have a union, all workers lose ground."

Having defined the problem we can move into how it doesn't have to be this way and what we need to change.  For example: "It's not fair that CEO's can demand contracts for themselves, but fight workers who want a voice and their own contract.  We need a system where workers make the choice about joining a union, not their employer.  And when more workers join unions we can win better wages and benefits for everyone and help rebuild the middle class."

All along the way we need to check in with the other person to see if they agree, and pause and discuss further if they do not. 

Finally we need a call to action.  "Can we count on you to sign a card calling on your Congressperson to support the Employee Free Choice Act?" 

Not surprisingly, in 1935, Big Business fought back against passing worker protections with "sky-is-falling" predictions of economic disaster.  What followed instead was the longest peacetime prosperity in our history and the creation of the American middle class, all built upon good union jobs.  It should be no surprise that big business is again fighting back tooth and nail, spending over $20 million dollars this election trying to defeat pro-Employee Free Choice candidates in nine battleground states.  There clearly is a lot at stake, but this is a fight workers can win.  Our economic future may just depend on it.

Wordle from this blog post