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IBEW Joins Shop Steward’s Army for Employee Free Choice Act

December 11, 2006

When Democrats won Congress in November, waves of speculation rolled out of the media about the party’s agenda in the 2007 legislative session. Lost in much of the guesswork was the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill to restore the fundamental right of Americans to freely organize unions and engage in collective bargaining. 

On December 8, the Employee Free Choice Act made news in Washington, D.C. as hundreds of unionists—who had just arrived for the AFL-CIO Organizing Summit—joined area activists at an outdoor rally facing the Capitol.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, the bill’s sponsor and the new chairman of the Senate Labor Committee joined AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and leaders of international unions, community, student and civil rights organizations.  Kennedy drew loud cheers as he outlined plans to win the bill, saying, “I’m sick of playing defense.  Now we go on the offense.”  President Edwin D. Hill led an IBEW contingent clad in shirts with the message “I am a worker. I demand a voice.”   

“Labor’s back,’ said Tom Hopper, assistant business manager of Downer’s
Grove, Ill., Local 21, who attended the organizing summit.  Back home, Local 21, said Hopper, was already enlisting troops for the “shop steward’s army” of volunteers to win the Employee Free Choice Act.

“We have to show our strength now to support the Employee Free Choice Act. Anti-union groups like Associated Builders and Contractors and UnionFacts.com are already mobilizing against us,” said Frank Voso, assistant business manager and organizer, Baltimore, Md., IBEW Local 24.