Having a law that protects workers’ right to unionise in the United States is vital to winning union recognition and bargaining rights world-wide. American companies have been exporting their abusive labour practices to every country they do business in and foreign companies have eagerly embraced those practices when they cross the US border. It is clear that without legislation protecting workers, multinational companies will treat workers as poorly as they can.
If passed, the Employee Free Choice Act would give US workers a free and fair chance to form a union, hold anti-union employers accountable and force employers to stop dragging out contract negotiations.
In early January, UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings chaired a meeting with leaders of US unions affiliated to both the AFL-CIO and the Change to Win federation, who are working together to get the legislation passed. The meeting also included representatives from the International Trade Union Confederation and trade union centres from around the world who supporting joint global action to ensure the Free Choice act becomes law.
US-based employers like Wal-Mart have fought unions and engaged in illegal labour practices in countries like Argentina, Mexico and China.
European-based companies have entered the race to the bottom when it comes to their labour practices in the United States. Deutcshe Telekom, which has a collective bargaining agreement with German union ver.di in its home country of Germany, has waged a vicious anti-union campaign at its American subsidiary T-mobile.
“For too long, the US has led the race to the bottom on labour rights,” UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings says. “Passing this law would be a major victory for US workers and, in the midst of this global recession, it is more important than ever.”
UNI Global Union is asking its affiliates worldwide to urge their leaders to call on the Obama administration to make sure that the Employee Free Choice Act is passed in the US ensuring American workers the right to join unions and bargain collectively without fear of retribution.
Passage of this vital legislation is the only way to stop the vicious race to the bottom that US multinationals are leading when it comes to working conditions and workers’ rights worldwide.
You can find out more information about the campaign for the Employee Free Choice Act at : http://www.americanrightsatwork.org
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In a letter to President Barack Obama published in Rolling Stone in January, Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman said passage of the Employee Free Choice Act to increase union membership is vital to the economic recovery and to build the ranks of the shrinking middle class.
“…you can do a lot to enhance workers' rights. One is to start laying the groundwork to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it much harder for employers to intimidate workers who want to join a union. I know it probably won't happen in your first year, but if and when it does, the legislation will enable America to take a huge step toward recapturing the middle-class society we've lost.”
-- Paul Krugman in his letter to President Obama
You can read Krugman’s article here: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/25456948/what_obama_must_do
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“Anti-union consultants are the perfect poster children for a system that encourages American employers to treat with disdain their employees’ rights to form unions and bargain collectively, and they are now seeking to export their attitudes and activities to several other countries, including the United Kingdom.”
-- John Logan, London School of Economics and Political Science
Click here for his report (http://www.tuc.org.uk/extras/loganreport.pdf)
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UNI Report: USA Labour Market: Not for Export!
The crisis of the U.S. labor movement has dramatically and negatively affected the standard of living and working conditions of the American work force, union and non-union alike, over the past 25 years. Rising poverty, stagnating wages for the vast majority of working people, growing job insecurity and falling job quality have been the hallmarks of the U.S. labor market. These developments are summed up in the soaring growth of income inequality in the United States, a trend that is the flip side of the increasing marginalization of America’s trade unions.
You can read the full report here
Global Solidarity for the US Employee Free Choice Act
