[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 82 (Wednesday, June 13, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1085-E1086]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                           RIGHT TO ORGANIZE

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. DAVID E. BONIOR

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 13, 2001

  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, The Right to Organize is a fundamental 
right--workers fought, bled and even died for this right.
  Workers organize because they want to ensure that their labor is 
valued . . . they want a voice at work.
  About four years ago, we began working with the AFL-CIO to lend our 
voices as Members of Congress . . . to help build coalitions with 
workers as they try to organize.
  As elected officials, we can join with clergy and other community 
leaders to ensure that workers have the freedom to choose to join a 
union.
  That's what the 7 Days in June are all about.
  We are here today to join the chorus of voices that says: `Employer 
interference with workers' choices is unacceptable.'
  This year's 7 Days in June . . . 9th through 16th . . . promises to 
be even bigger than last year when more than 12,000 workers, community 
leaders and elected officials participated in more than 120 events in 
100 cities.
  The participation in these events by Members of Congress is 
important--when we lend

[[Page E1086]]

our support, we help lift the spirits of those trying to organize.
  We also help them win!
  You know, there are some things an elected official should do . . . 
and some things an elected official should not do.
  Well, let me tell you, one thing an elected official should never do 
. . . stand by and watch while a state supported university tries to 
derail a union organizing drive the way Michigan State University tried 
to stop its teaching assistants from organizing earlier this year.
  That is why last February I began to help the MSU graduate students 
organize.
  Graduate students teach classes, grade papers and do research--they 
spend up to 30 hours a week working with no medical coverage and 
minimal compensation . . . and that's on top of their own graduate 
coursework.
  MSU was the only research university in Michigan where teaching 
assistants did not have collective bargaining rights.
  So we got together with the students and the Michigan Federation of 
Teachers to see what could be done.
  We began by gathering signatures on petitions in support of the 
student organizing drive.
  I called MSU President Peter McPherson several times asking that his 
Administration remain neutral during the organizing campaign.
  Some of us in the Michigan Congressional delegation (Kilpatrick, 
Kildee & Conyers) sent a joint letter to President McPherson as well.
  As it got close to the vote, I wrote a letter in support of the drive 
which was published in the student newspaper.
  And during the election, a number of us who supported the students 
stopped by the campaign headquarters.
  Together, I believe we made a difference in the lives of these 
students . . . and I am proud to say there are over 1,200 new union 
members in the State of Michigan today because of it.
  I know a number of my colleagues have similar experiences to share, 
and I would encourage everyone to look for ways to lend their voice to 
organizing efforts--when we work together, we build a better place to 
live for all of us.

                    Victory at MSU Required Teamwork

                           (By David Decker)

       The successful organizing effort as MSU was a yearlong 
     project. It required a massive amount of work and then when 
     we filed enough cards to get an election, the MSU 
     administration launched an anti-union campaign. Through it 
     all the campaign moved forward by talking one-on-one with the 
     graduate employees from each department at work, on campus 
     and in their homes. As the campaign progressed we added a web 
     site, e-mail list, and a get-out-the-vote phone bank. In 
     addition to organizing the graduate employees we also 
     organized our friends in the U.S. Congress, the Michigan 
     House and Senate, and in organized labor to bring pressure on 
     the MSU administration to stop it's anti-union campaign.
       MFT & SRP organizer Jon Curtiss, the BEU organizing staff, 
     steering committee, and department contacts led the 
     organizing effort at MSU. Augmenting Jon and the GEU crew 
     were numerous volunteers from the Graduate Employees 
     Organization (University of Michigan), including President 
     Cedric DeLeon and staffer Mark Dilley who worked the campaign 
     full-time in the closing weeks and from the Graduate 
     Employees Organizing Committee (Wayne State), including 
     President Peter Williams, Glenn Bessemer and staffer Charlie 
     Grose. At key point throughout the campaign MFT & SRP PSRP 
     organizer, Krista Schneider, lent her assistance.
       But while the key to the victory, the MSU graduate 
     assistants and staff did not stand-alone. They received 
     incredible support from elected officials, other labor 
     organizations, and the greater MSU community.
       Congressman David Bonior voiced concern to MSU President 
     McPherson directly and in a letter concerning the 
     university's anti-union campaign, and had a letter printed in 
     the State News supporting the organizing drive. Joining 
     Bonior in a letter were U.S. Representatives John Conyers, 
     Carolyn Kilpatrick and Dale Kildee, Congressman Sander Levin 
     also talked with President McPherson expressing his concerns. 
     And Congressman Bart Stupak sent a letter as well.
       State Representatives David Woodward (D-Royal Oak), Buzz 
     Thomas (D-Detroit) and Bill McConico (D-Detroit), a member of 
     the Highland Park Federation of Teachers, all stopped by the 
     office to help with the Get Out The Vote Effort. A total of 
     26 State Legislators signed a letter to President McPherson, 
     State Senator Diane Byrum sent a letter with similar theme.
       State Representative Ray Bashamis staffer, Hoon-Yung 
     Hopgood, Senate Democrat Office staffer Dana Houle, and State 
     Democratic Party staffer Dennis Denno all helped with phone 
     calls.
       Scores of MSU alumni, including Detroit teachers President 
     Janna Garrison, Metro Detroit AFL-CIO President Don Boggs, 
     Organization of School Administrations President Diann 
     Woodard, labor attorney David Radtke (who also spent a day 
     helping with organizing house calls), wrote President 
     McPherson.
       Numerous unions including Operating Engineers Local 547, 
     AFSCME Council 25 and Teamsters Joint Council 43 let the MSU 
     President know what they thought of the anti-union effort, 
     MSU alumnus Jack Finn, Legislative Director of United Food 
     and Commercial Workers Local 876, expressed his thoughts in a 
     letter printed in the State News. SEIU lobbyist Cindy Paul 
     joined in with house calls, while Julie Barton from Jobs For 
     Justice helped with the phone bank. UAW Regional Director Cal 
     Rapson called University Trustees on our behalf.
       Michigan State AFL-CIO President Mark Gaffney and the 
     staff--Denise Cook, Ken Fletcher, Mark Alexander and Mary 
     Holbrook provided their support. Former Michigan AFL-CIO 
     President Frank Garrison also made contracts on behalf of the 
     MSU graduate assistants.
       The MSU Labor Coalition, headed by Wayne Cass of Operating 
     Engineers Local 547, was there throughout the yearlong 
     campaign as was the Clerical-Technical Union who early on 
     lent us their offices for meetings and at the end helped with 
     the phone bank.
       Two MSU Trustees, Board Chair Colleen McNamara, and Trustee 
     Dorothy Gonzalez took all of our calls, met with us, and 
     urged the Administration not to run and anti-union campaign.

                                  ____
                                  

            The Threat to Workers' Freedom to Choose a Union

       The struggles working people face are not exceptions to the 
     rule--when a majority of workers say they want a union, 
     employers routinely threaten their right to make their own 
     free choice with a campaign of coercion, harassment and 
     firings.
       Ninety-one percent of employers, when faced with employees 
     who want to join together in a union, force employees to 
     attend closed-door meetings to hear anti-union propaganda; 80 
     percent require immediate supervisors to attend training 
     sessions on how to attack unions; and 79 percent have 
     supervisors deliver anti-union messages to workers they 
     oversee
       Eighty percent hire outside consultants to run anti-union 
     campaigns, often based on mass psychology and distorting the 
     law.
       Half of employers threaten to shut down if employees join 
     together in a union.
       In 31 percent of organizing campaigns, employers illegally 
     fire workers just because they want to form a union.
       Even after workers go through all this and win a National 
     Labor Relations Board election to form a union, one-third of 
     the time their employer never negotiates a contract with 
     them.
       More than at any time in recent history, working people are 
     joining together in unions with the hope of improving our 
     living standards, our communities and our jobs. But as 
     workers succeed, employers are stepping up a campaign of 
     coercion, firings and harassment to block our freedom to make 
     our own decisions about joining a union.
       That's why the AFL-CIO and its 13-million-member affiliated 
     unions have begun a broad, long-term campaign to restore the 
     balance needed to project the right of workers to make a free 
     choice to join a union.
       Through Voice@Work, unions are helping workers form unions 
     in a new way. Right from a campaign's start, workers reach 
     out to their elected representatives, clergy members and 
     other community leaders to gain support fort their freedom to 
     form a union. Many of these community leaders eagerly back 
     their constituents' efforts to build better lives for their 
     families and help call on employers to avoid intimidation and 
     coercion.
       7 Days in June is the annual high point in our effort. We 
     join together--workers, our unions, state federations and 
     central labor councils, community leaders, clergy, public 
     officials and students--to say employer interference with 
     workers' choices is unacceptable. 7 Days in June this year is 
     June 9 through 16. It promises to be even bigger than last 
     year, when more than 12,000 working people, community leaders 
     and elected officials participated in more than 120 events in 
     100 cities.
       Working families will continue to push for a voice at work 
     by telling Americans why workers are struggling to form 
     unions and how their employers are waging a war against them.

     

                          ____________________