WASHINGTON, D.C.- U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA) and U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) today said that a proposal unveiled by three companies this weekend as an alternative to the Employee Free Choice Act would further undermine workers' rights on the job. Miller and Harkin, leaders in the House and Senate on the Employee Free Choice Act, issued the following statement opposing this approach:
"This proposal is unacceptable. It was written by CEOs for CEOs. It is not a serious attempt at labor law reform because it fails to fundamentally address key problems that currently prevent workers from being able to join together and bargain for a better life.
"This proposal maintains the status quo by denying workers a real say in the workplace. It denies workers the ability to choose majority sign-up, the one method for organizing proven to reduce coercion and pressure from all sides on workers. It rejects a tried and proven method for ensuring good faith bargaining, denying workers a fair chance to gain the same kind of enforceable contracts that CEOs always take for themselves.
"It even increases the power of CEOs to dominate workers' choices by allowing CEOs to initiate drives to get rid of a union - a choice that should belong to workers, not CEOs. It is nothing more than a classic Washington lobbying campaign intended to confuse the issues and disguise the real agenda of maintaining the status quo.
"Strengthening and growing America's middle class depends on the ability of employees to exercise their democratic rights at work. In these economic times it is more important than ever for workers to have a say about their job security, their wages, their retirement savings, and their health care. The Employee Free Choice Act is simple: it will help our economy work for everyone again by giving workers, not CEOs, the choice of whether and how to join together to bargain for a better life. Workers will not benefit if CEOs continue to have a veto over their rights at work."
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(source: http://www.groceryworkersunited.org/NEWS_032309_EFCA.htm)
