[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 173 (Monday, November 24, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Page S15805]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE ACT

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, on Friday, I was pleased to introduce the 
Employee Free Choice Act, which is sponsored by 24 Members of the 
Senate.
  For decades, labor unions have led the fight for the 8-hour day, and 
the 40-hour week, for overtime pay, for the minimum wage, for safe and 
healthy workplaces, for health insurance, for retirement security, and 
many other basic rights. Millions of union members in communities 
across America benefit today from the long hard battles of the past.
  Union workers earn wages 25 percent higher than nonunion workers. 
Union workers are more than four times as likely to have a secure 
pension plan. Union workers are 40 percent more likely to have health 
insurance coverage.
  These and many other longstanding benefits of union membership are 
undisputed. But too many workers who want to be members of a union are 
unable to do so. The reason is clear. Too often, employers discourage 
it in any way they can.
  For years, illegal employer tactics have been common whenever 
employees attempt to form a union. Each year, employers are charged 
with over 20,000 instances of violating workplace labor rights. In over 
half of these claims, a worker was punished or even fired for union 
activity. A recent survey found that employers illegally fire employees 
in one quarter of all union organizing drives.
  Even employees who manage to form a union often can't get a contract, 
because employers refuse to bargain. Only half of the unions who win an 
election are able to get a first contract.
  Often, companies hire expensive consultants and launch campaigns to 
intimidate workers and keep them from supporting a union.
  Anti-union companies often give their managers pamphlets with titles 
like ``A Manager's Toolbox to Remaining Union Free.''
  They close down departments that succeed in unionizing. Employers spy 
on workers and use one-on-one confrontations to intimidate workers or 
break the union.
  Too often, Federal labor laws intended to protect workers from 
coercion have no teeth. If workers are fired, they may not get their 
jobs back for years. At most, the employer will owe back wages. 
Companies treat such payments as just another cost of doing business.
  America's workers deserve better. American democracy deserves better.
  That is why we are here today to introduce the Employee Free Choice 
Act. Free Choice means: the freedom to associate freely in the 
workplace; the freedom to choose your own labor representative; and the 
freedom to bargain for better wages, better health care, and other 
benefits.
  Our bill recognizes a specific right of workers to choose a union 
through a process called a card check. If a majority of employees sign 
a card asking for representation by a union, the employer must comply.
  The bill also requires employers to come to the table to negotiate a 
first contract. And it levels the playing field for employees who are 
attempting to organize a union or obtain a first contract. It provides 
for court orders to stop employers from firing or threatening these 
workers. The bill also puts real teeth in the law by strengthening the 
penalties in current law for workers that support a union.
  These protections are long overdue. For too long, we have acquiesced 
in the anti-labor, anti-worker, anti-union tactics that are far too 
prevalent in the workplace. We like to think that workers are free to 
join a union, but too often that basic aspect of freedom is denied in 
our modern society, because hard-line corporate managers succeed in 
denying a fair choice by workers.
  At a critical time like this when we are fighting for the basic 
freedoms of other peoples in other lands, we cannot fail to take a 
stand for the basic freedoms of the millions of American workers who 
depend on us to protect their rights at home.




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