The Employee Free Choice Act
On March 1, the day that the Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 800 – http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/voiceatwork/efca/) passed the House (241-185), I put in my Billy Bragg CD and sang along with “There is Power in a Union.” Cheesy, perhaps, but workers won’t be singing until the bill becomes law and therein lies it’s most treacherous journey as it must pass the Senate and get signed into law by President Bush. We all know that’s not going to happen thanks to Vice President Dick Cheney who said in a recent speech to the National Association of Manufacturers, a group that has seen most of their jobs and industry shipped elsewhere, that the President will veto the bill anyway. If that happens, the only recourse is for a 2/3rds majority override of the veto by Congress.
I first became aware of the bill through Lisa May, an educator friend of mine who told me about it. She’s had plenty of union experience and experience with the Teacher’s Union in Florida. I, however, work in an industry that has no real union representation or, seemingly, a glimmer of hope for one (welcome to the world of IT).
She tells me labor unions were given legal status in the U.S. in 1935 by The Wagner Act also known as the National Labor Relations Act.
“Once unions were legalized workers started forming and joining unions like crazy,” High School History/Social Studies teacher Lisa May says. “But in 1955 The Taft-Hartley bill was passed, which made organizing unions more difficult.
