With our employees, we’ve had an opportunity to develop policies and procedures that benefit the company. It’s been an entirely positive experience.

Horndasch says that without a strong middle class, small businesses like his won’t be able to function—and making sure people have good union jobs ensures that they can be part of a strong middle class.

Horndasch’s sentiment is shared by Jim O’Malley, the owner of Print and Copy Center of Pittsburgh. He describes the positive impact of seeing your employees as allies working towards the same goal:

My employees offer good, productive ideas, and we all work together. We have common goals we work towards.

I look at my employees as a partner. They understand that if the company is successful, they share in that.

These small business owners know that passing the Employee Free Choice Act isn’t just critical for workers, but for businesses and the larger economy as well.

The April recess coincided with the expiration of the CWA/AT&T contract, but Local 3108 in Orlando Florida was ready to act on both issues.  With the assistance of the CWA Employee Free Choice Act Field Activist Joy Edery and Local President Dave Skinner, over 100 Local 3108 members wrote letters thanking Senator Bill Nelson for co-sponsoring the Employee Free Choice Act.  Then, 25 members from CWA, other unions, and members of the Democratic Party continued the campaign by hosting a 2-day event to thank Senator Nelson and deliver thousands of Million Member Mobilization cards and handwritten letters. After the AT&T contract expired, President Skinner kept members up to date during a strike watch party and encouraged more activity in support of the Employee Free Choice Act.

In Pennsylvania, CWA members participated in events across 7 cities.  Last week, a mobile billboard featring Local 13000 member John Pezzana circled the Comcast headquarters during a rally in Philadelphia.  John spoke at that rally and the mobile billboard traveled onto Harrisburg, Wilkes-Barre, and the Lehigh Valley.  Just today, over 500 people marched through Pittsburgh to demand that Senator Arlen Specter change his position and support the Employee Free Choice Act.  Steelworkers’ President Leo Gerard addressed the group, as did District 13 Administrative Director Marge Krueger.

In North Carolina, Coordinator Bill Burton from Local 3611 organized a meeting with Senator Kay Hagen to thank her for her support of the Employee Free Choice Act, and to talk about why this legislation is so critical for working men and women. Curtis Shew, President of Local 3601 shared his experience with cable tv workers being fired after approaching CWA to help them organize. During the meeting Senator Hagen received a CWA lobby packet with 50 letters from members as well as a large box of signed Million Member Mobilization cards.

Other great work around the country included:

• California: Workers marched in Los Angeles to encourage Senator Feinstein to support the Employee Free Choice Act.   
• Louisiana: CWA members organized a letter-writing luncheon to generate more handwritten notes to Senator Landrieu.
• Colorado: CWA members partnered with other groups to hold over 20 events around the state—such as editorial board meetings and workplace leafleting.
• Arkansas: CWA members organized a key face-to-face meeting with Senator Lincoln and delivered Million Member Mobilization cards.
• Virginia: CWA members countered the rallies in Richmond and Roanoke by the anti-worker Chamber of Commerce and various front groups.

The lie that the bill eliminates the secret ballot has become the central argument for the bill’s opponents, and having it rejected by the The Wall Street Journal is a positive development.

“There is nothing in the Employee Free Choice Act that deprives workers of the right to a secret ballot,” Ellison said. “It’s just not in the law. It’s not true; it’s a scare tactic. ...These union-busting companies have weakened and stifled our right to organize, the middle class has been sliding ever since the right to organize has been weakened.”

To promote the form, Representative Ellison recorded an excellent radio ad about the Act.  Listen to it at http://keithellison.org/EFCAKeithEllison030209.mp3

The banners feature three CWA members: Chinazo Okolo and Joe Bordelon from local 3403 in Louisiana, and Sara Steffens, an award winning newspaper reporter who was fired for organizing a union at the Contra Costa Times in California. John Pezzana, a Local 13000 member who helped organize his co-workers at Comcast in Pittsburgh, PA will be featured on a mobile billboard.  The billboard will greet Senator Specter while he is home in Pennsylvania during the upcoming district work period.

The workers attended campaign kickoff events today along with Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), Representative George Miller (D-CA), and “West Wing” actors Martin Sheen, Bradley Whitford and Richard Schiff to kick off the campaign to once again make workers the face of the American economy.

You can learn more about the workers’ stories at www.freechoicecwa.org.

CWA President Larry Cohen stated that Specter’s switch “will not defeat us,” and pointed out that he is only one Senator: “We have educated millions of Americans in our movement and outside about why Employee Free Choice is critical to rebuilding our economy and restoring the middle class and we will go forward.”

Hundreds of CWA members from Pennsylvania have faxed personal letters to Specter’s office opposing his position.  One member drew on her personal experience, “We really need this Employee Free Choice Act. As an employee of Comcast Cable it took us 5 very long and frustrating years to gain a contract. No one needs to go through that. It took a toll on everyone.”

CWA President Larry Cohen described the importance of workers speaking to their representatives in Congress: “Workers’ stories expose the lies that the Chamber [of Commerce] and other business front groups have been spreading about Employee Free Choice.”

Thousands of other CWA members made their voices heard by sending messages thanking Employee Free Choice Act co-sponsors and encouraging those who have not yet co-sponsored the legislation to get on board.  Additionally, CWA-ers in ten priority states have pledged to get at least 1% of their memberships to hand-write letters to their Senators. To find out if your Senators and Representative have co-sponsored and to send your own message visit http://www.freechoiceact.org/takeactioncwa.

At the press conference marking the introduction of the legislation, Senator Harkin noted:

Just as the National Labor Relations Act, the 40 hour week and the minimum wage helped to pull us out of the Great Depression and into a period of unprecedented prosperity, so too will the Employee Free Choice Act help reinvigorate our economy.

Representative Miller agreed that the bill is critical to overcoming the current economic crisis:

If we want a fair and sustainable recovery from this economic crisis, we must give workers the ability to stand up for themselves and once again share in the prosperity they help to create.

The day began with a standing-room-only hearing on the bill. The Senate Health, Employment, Labor and Pension Committee was bolstered by the strong presence of union members dressed in work uniforms who were seated in the gallery. The crowd cheered statements by Senators Harkin (IA), Sanders (VT), Brown (OH) and Casey (PA) as they spoke of the need for the Employee Free Choice Act to fight income disparities and restore the economy by preserving good paying jobs.

The hearing featured the testimony of CWA member Sharon Harrison of Virginia, who spoke of the power that the Employee Free Choice Act would give to workers:

Before we had our union, favoritism was a problem. Raises didn’t depend on your job performance but whether your manager liked you. That all changed in 2005 when Cingular Wireless, now AT&T Mobility, took over. Cingular had agreed with CWA to remain neutral, to let workers make up our own minds and to recognize the union if a majority signed up. Because of that agreement, we weren’t afraid anymore that managers would retaliate against us.

You can watch a video of the entire hearing or download a copy of Sharon’s testimony.  Sharon’s testimony begins at 152:19 in the video.

Sharon’s story, along with those of other CWA members, is also available from our Workers’ Stories library.

Use the tools at www.GovTrack.us to set up e-mail alerts or an RSS feed for the Employee Free Choice Act.  Just search on HR 1409 to keep track of progress in the House of Representatives and S 560 to keep track of Senate developments.

If you use Twitter, consider following Representative George Miller’s feed from the House Education and Labor Committee (@edlabordems).

But Anne Layne-Farrar, the economist at corporate consulting firm LEGG who authored the study, relied on flawed research.

Economist Dean Baker points out that Layne-Farrar’s comparison with Canada’s unemployment and union density rates don’t add up:

This study purports to find that a 3 percentage point increase in unionization rates leads to a 1 percentage point increase in unemployment. Based on this study, the opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act argue that any resulting increase in unionization will cost millions of jobs. Of course the immediate response might be to ask, if this study’s findings are accurate, why isn’t Canada’s unemployment rate 7 percentage points higher than the U.S. rate? Canada’s unionization rate is about 20 percentage points higher than in the U.S., yet its unemployment rate is somewhat lower.

The Institute for Southern Studies also took a close look at Layne-Farrar’s work.  Their conclusion?  “Even as a piece of business research-for-hire, Layne-Farrar’s study is shockingly weak—based on a thin set of old and irrelevant data that doesn’t even bear out her own conclusions.”

Did you hear about this report from your local newspaper or television station?  If so, use our letter to the editor tool to let them know that the research is flawed and that rather than destroy American jobs, the Employee Free Choice act will restore the middle class and help rebuild our economy.

“Passing the Employee Free Choice Act and making it harder for management to threaten workers seeking to unionize would be good for American workers. It would help boost workers’ wages and benefits. And putting more money in workers’ pockets would provide a needed boost for the U.S.economy. Increasing unionization is a good way to get out of our current economic troubles.”

For the full Report and other research from the Center for American Progress on the Employee Free Choice Act, check out their website.

Fifteen CWA members are slated to participate, including Heidi Dahms of Maine.  Dahms helped bring fairness to her workplace by leading an organizing campaign at Fairpoint Telecom.  Dahms knows that the Employee Free Choice Act will give other workers around the country who want to organize a union the same opportunity she and her co-workers have had (see full story below).

“A rising tide lifts all boats only when labor and management bargain on relatively equal terms. In recent decades, most bargaining power has resided with management. The current recession will further weaken the ability of workers to bargain individually.

“More than ever, workers will need to act together. The Employee Free Choice Act is not a panacea, but it would restore some balance to our labor markets. As economists, we believe this is a critically important step in rebuilding our economy and strengthening our democracy by enhancing the voice of working people in the workplace.”

The ad appeared in the Post the day after Barack Obama’s first address to Congress, where he outlined the challenges that face our country. President Obama discussed the economic downturn’s devastating impact on the middle class, but was also quick to note that America has always responded strongly during difficult times. And as these 40 economists said on Wednesday, there is no better help for the middle class than the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.

To learn more about the benefits of the Employee Free Choice Act, be sure to check out all the resources available on the Economic Policy Institute’s website.

In Florida, members delivered over 5,000 cards in support of the Employee Free Choice Act as well as nearly 400 handwritten letters to the office of Senator Bill Nelson. During their meeting with an aide to the Senator, they shared their stories and asked for Senator Nelson’s support.

In New York, members met with Congressmen Dan Maffi (NY-25), Eric Massa (NY-29) and an aide to Congressman Michael Arcuri (NY-24). All three members have agreed to co-sponsor the Employee Free Choice Act.

Last year thousands of CWA members prepared for the opportunities presented by the 2009 elections by participating in day-long workshops about the Employee Free Choice Act and Health Care. Much of the material they covered is available online at www.freechoicecwa.org and www.healthcarevoices.org .

The next district work period is tentatively scheduled for early April. If you would be interested in participating in a lobby visit please contact your local to find out how you can get involved.

That’s why CWA members are busy writing letters to the editor to their local papers in order to get the word out about the Employee Free Choice Act.  In North Carolina, Bill Burton saw a letter from an opponent of the bill in the News and Observer and wanted to make sure readers got the full story:

Employees DO keep secret-ballot rights under the Employee Free Choice Act. They would simply gain an additional way to seek a contract and union representation through card check. The bill still provides for a secret-ballot election should employees opt for it. [Kilpatrick Stockton lawyer Richard] Haygood rightly assumes that most working men and women will use the card check method to avoid the coercion, threats, intimidation and even firings that companies use to discourage employees from forming a union.

Get involved!  Our online tool makes it easy to write your own letter.

We need the Employee Free Choice Act so we can feel empowered to step up and help solve problems in our workplace, and not be scared that if we stick our necks out that we’re going to be the next ones laid off.

Check out our video of Sara speaking at the Rally and hear more of her story.

Rally participants also began the process of delivering 1.5 million cards to Congress from supporters of the Employee Free Choice Act, including more than 110,000 from CWA members.  The names of those supporters are being displayed online in a continuous scroll.  You can show your support for the Employee Free Choice Act by placing the scroll on your own website or blog.  Learn more at: http://www.freechoiceact.org/cwa/pages/web_widget