Significant Roadblocks Exist for Workers to Exercise Labor Rights, House Labor Panel Learns
WASHINGTON – Members of a House labor subcommittee learned today about the significant hurdles faced by workers organizing a union and getting a first contract from a Cablevision employee who was fired when he and his colleagues organized and spoke out for fair bargaining at his workplace.
“Ten years ago, I put my life on the line 6,000 miles away from home in the name of protecting the basic rights of American democracy. I never thought that I would see the day that I, as an American citizen, would have my basic rights trampled on and no one would do anything about it. I never thought that a big corporation could violate my rights and the government would let them get away with it,” said Clarence Adams, a Cablevision field technician and Iraq veteran. “I just want a shot at the American Dream. I want some job security. I want to know that I can’t be fired without just cause.”
Adams was fired along with 21 other workers when they tried to avail themselves of their company’s “open door policy” to express their frustration with management’s refusal to engage in meaningful bargaining a year after they had voted to unionize. While Adams was later rehired following a public campaign to reinstate the workers, the workers have yet to get a first contract more than 600 days after they voted to unionize.
These anti-worker tactics have unfortunately proven successful: Private-sector union membership is 6.6 percent, falling from nearly a third of all workers in the 1960s. As workers’ rights have eroded, so have their paychecks, and access to health insurance and a secure retirement. At the same time, the gap between CEO compensation and workers’ wages has increased to record levels.
"We believe that you grow the economy through the middle class out,” said Rep. Rob Andrews (D-N.J.), the ranking member of the House Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee. “When Americans are engaged in collective bargaining, they are part of this effort to grow the economy. On average, union workers earn 27 percent more than their nonunion counterparts. They are more likely to have a retirement plan and health care coverage. These are the elements of middle class success.”
Democrats questioned a GOP-called witness and former National Labor Relations Board general counsel in the George W. Bush administration about his past statements regarding the real difficulties of workers in getting to a first contract after workers have voted to approve a union.
“…when employees are bargaining for their first collective bargaining agreement, they are highly susceptible to unfair labor practices intended to undermine support for their bargaining representative,” wrote Ronald Meisburg, currently a member of the Proskauer law firm, in a April 2006 memo when he was NLRB’s general counsel.
According to Meisburg’s memo, employers refused to bargain in more than a quarter of newly-certified unions with half occurring during the initial contract bargaining time period.
“I am sad to say that my experience has taught me that our current labor laws are broken. Workers who dream of reaching the middle class and who hope for some job security shouldn’t have to endure months and even years of fear and intimidation at work,” said Adams.
Lana Stewart and Tanya Cauley, members of a new group fighting for workers’ rights at Wal-Mart members called OUR Wal-Mart, also attended the hearing. Wal-Mart employees have gone on strike and picketed stores to protest the company’s pattern of firing workers who speak out. The committee’s senior Democratic member Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) pointed out that workers like Stewart and Cauley have increasingly turned to new ways of asserting their rights in the workplace precisely because of how broken the nation’s labor law is.
“My constituents know that with Wal-Mart, a discussion of a union is toxic. They're trying to figure out how they can keep their job and how they get some respect, decent wages, and decent working conditions,” said Miller. “And if you try to figure it out among your peers, you can get fired. But if you go the other route as Mr. Adams went, you spend a year trying to talk to your coworkers and get a union, and you win an election. But now you've spent 601 days trying to get the results of your election and get the benefits of the bargaining.”
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