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N.C. Workers Set Record Straight on Employee Free Choice |
Working people have made passage of the Employee Free Choice Act a priority issue in the 2008 election. Today, 150 workers from throughout North Carolina pledged their support for the bill, which would level the playing field and allow workers to decide whether to choose a union without employer interference.
The workers held a public roundtable to set the record straight about the legislation after the Catawba County Chamber of Commerce held an event in Hickory featuring prominent anti-worker politicians to spread misinformation about the bill.
The event, which included national Chamber officials, Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.), Rep. Robin Hayes (R-N.C.) and other elected officials, was supposed to be held outside as a rally. But in a move to keep union members out, the event was moved inside and participants were required to show ID and a business card. Dole, who is running for re-election, opposes the Employee Free Choice Act. Her Democratic challenger, Kay Hagan, supports the bill.
The Catawba Chamber’s actions coincide with a broader effort by corporate groups to stop the Employee Free Choice Act. In state after state, deep-pocket front groups, such as the so-called Center for Union Facts and the Employee Freedom Action Committee, are running ads that assail congressional candidates for their support of the bill.
MaryBe McMillan, secretary-treasurer of the North Carolina AFL-CIO, said at the roundtable:
North Carolina workers are standing up for their rights, and it’s time for Congress and the president to stand with them. For too long, workers who wanted union representation have been threatened for exercising their rights. The Employee Free Choice Act takes that power away from corporate America and lets workers freely choose whether and how they want to form a union.
Keith Ludlum, a former worker at Smithfield Packing in Tarheel, N.C., told the group that workers are routinely harassed, threatened and even fired for trying to form a union.
The Employee Free Choice Act would help rebuild the nation’s middle class, said Jim Davis, president of Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 3672.
A union card is the best opportunity for workers to get ahead and join the middle class. According to government statistics, union members make 30 percent more than workers who don’t have a union. In North Carolina, that number is even greater. Union members make 36 percent more than workers who don’t have a union—that’s over $9,800 a year.
It’s a shame that now—when workers need help the most—that some CEOs and politicians don’t support workers’ freedom to bargain for better wages and benefits.
The area around Hickory has been hit hard by the stagnant economy. Some 2,500 jobs are leaving nearby Concord as Philip Morris Tobacco closes its plant and increases production at its overseas facilities. This comes five years after Pillowtex closed its plant in neighboring Cabarrus County and 15 other locations, causing the worst job loss in the state’s history.
In some communities, the Pillowtex shutdown cost more than jobs. In Fieldale, Va., a small town in Henry County on the Virginia–North Carolina border, the Pillowtex towel plant had been the town’s lifeline. Not only did 1,000 of the county’s 58,000 residents work at Pillowtex, but Pillowtex paid roughly $94,500 a month to the county for wastewater treatment, $1.4 million a year in Henry County taxes, supplied the town’s water and paid for the local police, community center and street lights. All that financial support is now gone.
Jim Logan, who owns the American Income Life agency in Matthews, N.C., said at the roundtable the Employee Free Choice Act just makes good business sense.
Unions strengthen our communities, and that actually helps businesses like mine because families who earn decent wages have stronger buying power—and that means they can afford to buy products like mine to protect their families.
McMillan says working families are determined to do whatever it takes to elect leaders who will enact the Employee Free Choice Act.
By electing a worker-friendly president and a worker-friendly, filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, we can ensure fairness for all American workers.
Sen. Barack Obama is a co-sponsor of the legislation in the Senate, while his Republican opponent for president, John McCain, opposes the bill.
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