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Labor Kicks Off Million-Member Drive
for Employee Free Choice Act

July 9, 2008

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers has joined hundreds of unions and pro-working family organizations across the United States in the drive to get at least 1 million signatures from union members in support of the Employee Free Choice Act. The petitions will be presented to the next president and Congress in November.

EFCA Rally

Union members rallied on Capitol Hill last summer in support of the Employee Free Choice Act. 

The Employee Free Choice Act is legislation that would restore workers’ freedom to form unions and collectively bargain for better wages, health care and working conditions.

“It’s vital to our union’s and country’s future that every IBEW member sign the petition,” said International President Edwin D. Hill. “Making labor law work for Americans again is a top priority and we need to guarantee that our member’s voices will be heard.”

The Employee Free Choice Act won majority support in both the House and Senate last year, but was blocked by GOP senators. The bill would give employees at a workplace the right to unionize as soon as a majority signed union cards. Under current law, companies can make employees wait months, even years, for a secret ballot election. It would also increase penalties in employers who illegally punish workers for organizing.

One of the bill’s sponsors was presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama from Illinois. “I support this bill because in order to restore a sense of shared prosperity and security, we need to help working Americans exercise their right to organize under a fair and free process and bargain for their fair share of the wealth our country creates,” he said.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) opposed the act.

 

Click here http://freechoiceact.org/ibew to sign the petition.