Working Women Speak Out for Employee Free Choice

by Seth Michaels, Aug 5, 2009 Here are three great op-ed pieces from around the country—Colorado, Pennsylvania and Maine—that highlight why the Employee Free Choice Act is critical to working women in this tough economy. Linda Meric, the executive director of 9 to 5, National Association of Working Women, writes a great op-ed about the need for Employee Free Choice in the Denver Post. Meric notes the advantages that the chance to form a union offers to women in Colorado and around the country: The Employee Free Choice Act is one sure way to address this gender-based pay gap. Unionization can provide important economic security for low-wage Colorado women and their families. The benefits of union membership for women in low-wage occupations are even greater. Among those working in the 15 lowest-paying occupations, union members not only earned more than their non-union counterparts, they were also 26 percentage points more likely to have employer-provided health insurance and 23 percentage points more likely to have a pension plan than those who were not members of a union…. Health insurance is just one of the positive workplace standards unions can provide for working women. Union representation is also one of the strongest predictors of family-flexible workplace policies. In Maine, three union members—Rebecca Westleigh, Shianne Valenzuela and Mary Hall—write in the Lewiston Sun-Journal about what union membership means for working women like them: We all agree: having a voice on the job and collective bargaining rights has dramatically improved our lives and enabled us to support our families. We want to see those benefits and opportunities extended to all workers…. Now more than ever, we need to rebuild an economy that works for everyone. We strongly encourage our senators to support Mainers and women by voting for the Employee Free Choice Act. This common sense legislation would give workers the freedom to join a union without intimidation and bargain collectively for better wages and benefits. And in Pennsylvania, Donna Bernhard, a registered nurse, explains in the Pottstown Mercury why her union matters to her, her community and the patients she cares for—and why all workers need the chance she had to bargain for a better life: As a nurse, I know I can do my job because I have the support I need. I don’t have to worry about finding health care for my own family. And the reason is because I and my co-workers bargain together as a union for higher wages, benefits and better working conditions. But most people aren’t that lucky. Most experience intimidation, coercion and even firing when they want to form a union. According to polling, 60 million people would choose to form a union today if they could, but too few ever get that chance because U.S. labor law is too weak to help them…. I know firsthand the benefits unions bring to my family and I believe that our community would be better served by a system that restores balance in our workplaces. It’s clear that protecting working people’s freedom to form unions is the best way to guarantee livable wages, health care benefits and retirement security to working people. As a result, it is also the best way to strengthen and expand the middle class. from AFL-CIO NOW blog