Letter to the Editor

Still has hope for Employer Free Choice Act

Sunday, December 21, 2008

To the Editor:

Stop corporate bullying.

Hard-working Americans are hurting. Paychecks have flat-lined, but everything else keeps going up -- health care, college tuition, groceries and more.

Hard-working Americans need the ability to organize a union without fear of retaliation from their employer. Today, hard-working men and women who try to form or join a union often face coercion, intimidation or are simply fired by their employer. That needs to change.

The Employer Free Choice Act (EFCA) removes corporate veto power over workers' rights to organize and bargain collectively. It fixes a system that is horribly skewed in favor of big businesses and corporations and puts power back in the hands of the hard-working Americans.

If we're going to teach kids about the American Dream, we need to make America a place where everyone has the same opportunities. That means the right to organize around issues like health care, pensions and safe working conditions.

George W. Bush and the Republicans killed the Employee Free Choice Act last year. Let's hope that Barack Obama and the Democrats can make it the law of the land next year.

Jody Mauller,

Gas City, Ind.