I'm very pleased to be with you today. It gives me the opportunity to talk with some of you who already are doing exceptional work and are helping to develop new strategies in our ongoing fight to restore true workers' rights.
It also gives me the chance to talk with some of you not yet so inclined.
What's So Important about the Labor Movement?
Middle-class working families are losing ground. We're losing health care, retirement security and jobs. We in the labor movement know that it's no coincidence that the decline in the well-being of middle-income families, the decline in the number of families actually able to move up the economic ladder, is directly tied to the decline of collective bargaining.
Note that I did not say decline of unions. The deterioration of the middle-class standard of living that working families enjoyed in the past is a direct result of the loss in the country of real bargaining rights by workers. That's why my union and others are working so hard to restore workers' rights by restoring labor law that really works.
We don't have that now, but with a lot of hard work and the right people elected to office, we can get it. CWA's President Larry Cohen is a key force behind this drive for real bargaining rights. Some of you may even have heard him say that it doesn't matter what unions workers join — that the goal is real bargaining rights for all. He's right.
In the days of the 1930s, when workers were signing up for unions in rubber, auto, steel, newspapers, textiles, you name it, their strength came from the rights workers were confident that they had, because the federal government said so, and the federal government protected those rights. Workers formed their own organizations, they formed independent unions, they did everything they could to have a real voice at work.
But today, workplace democracy doesn't exist for the vast majority of U.S. workers. And, if we are going to stop the decline of the middle class, that has to change.
There's an advantage to union membership. It shows up in higher wages, better health care coverage, more retirement security and pensions, leave for vacations and other time off and overall, better working conditions. Compare weekly wages for non-union men, at $622, with the earnings of union men -- $801. Compare the percentage of union-represented men with health care benefits – 92 percent – with the 68 percent of non union men who have any health coverage. And the numbers and the benefits are even more dramatic for women and minority workers.
With fewer than 8 percent of private sector workers represented by unions – less than in 1935 just before the passage of the Wagner Act -- middle-class working Americans are in financial free fall, losing health care, retirement security and jobs. And these gains are being lost not just for current workers, but for future generations.
Compare this with what's happening in other democracies around the world — like Brazil, Taiwan and South Africa — where workers have bargaining rights. Even in South Africa, a country where not too long ago, a vicious system of apartheid was the law of the land. Now, workers there have the right to form unions and are doing so. It's not always easy.
Recently, communications workers called on the global labor movement for help in their fight against Vodacom, the wireless company in South Africa. They didn't get all they wanted yet, but they have the right now to a union voice and bargaining rights, and that's making all the difference.
Back in the United States, the same business leaders who want us all to adapt to the global economy don't want to follow the example of these countries when it comes to workers' rights and bargaining rights.
Why the Employee Free Choice Act?
Working people should be able to make their own decision about whether they want union representation. Surveys show that 57 million workers without a union want one.
But today, that's not possible for workers. That's why we're fighting to have the Employee Free Choice Act signed into law. The Employee Free Choice Act is about restoring collective bargaining, restoring the ability of working people to have a real voice at work.
Labor law was originally intended to promote collective bargaining and, in fact, that's what the preamble to the National Labor Relations Act actually says — to promote collective bargaining. We've fallen a long way from that.
Today, we have a system where workers who want a union voice are harassed and intimidated on the job, and are forced into a fight with their employer every day. One of out every five workers who tries to form a union is fired, illegally. It takes at least four years or more for a worker who's been fired illegally to get his or her job back, because of the pace of the National Labor Relations Board and the court appeals process fostered by the anti-union majority. That's four or more years.
And, what is the penalty to employers who do violate the law? Basically the equivalent of a financial slap on the wrist. Companies must pay back-wages to the wrongly fired employee, minus any earnings during that period. For most companies, that's just the cost of doing business.
Here's what employers do to block workers from making a fair choice:
- 92 percent force employees to attend mandatory anti-worker presentations.
- 78 percent force employees to attend one-on-one anti-union meetings with managers.
- 75 percent hire consultants to help them fight union organizing campaigns.
- 51 percent threaten to move or close if workers vote to form a union.
- 25 percent illegally fire at least one worker for union activity during organizing campaigns.
When workers do successfully get their union, they are forced to battle all over again with employers who spend millions to stall contract talks with the hopes of busting the workers' union. One-third of the time, employers never negotiate a contract.
The other side — the management/lawyer side or the union-busting law firm side, is fierce. The other side gets it. And, that's why there's an immense mobilization among union-busters and groups like the Chamber of Commerce to stop the Employee Free Choice Act. Publicly, they'll say it's about "defending the right of every worker to vote."
If workers actually were able to cast a fair vote, that might be okay. But that's not the system we have today.
Compare how our democratic election process at every level of our government works with the NLRB process.
- Do all parties have equal access to voter list and voters? Yes in democratic elections, no under the NLRB.
- Are voters intimidated or threatened? No in democratic elections, but yes under the NLRB, process where employers harass and even fire union supporters.
- Can voters be forced to listen to one side only? No in democratic elections but yes in NLRB elections where employers hold voters captive to an anti-union message.
- Can one side delay the election and the outcome? No under our democratic process but yes under NLRB elections where employers can delay almost indefinitely.
- Are elections conducted at the campaign headquarters of one side? No in our democratic system, but yes in NLRB elections which are held on company property.
Today, we have a system where CEOs and executives demand contracts to protect their pay and benefits. But many of those same CEOs are leading the fight to keep middle-class workers from ever having a contract or a voice at work. And again, all this is despite the preamble to the law that says it is intended to "promote collective bargaining."
What's my proof? Take a look at some of the materials and the websites that these union-busting law firms have created and distribute. Where they say that "an organizing campaign is a declaration of war." Or, where they offer a "guaranteed winner package," that means as management, if "you don't win, you don't pay." Check it out for yourselves.
One of the largest employers of CWA members — Verizon — has been charged by the National Labor Relations Board for breaking federal labor law. Not once, but many times and as recently as August 2007, according to a new report by American Rights at Work.
Let me run through a shortlist of some illegal actions that Verizon has conducted, according to the NLRB. Then, you determine if the workers there are able to exercise a free and fair choice about union representation:
1. Verizon Business targets union supporters purposely to make their lives miserable. In Monsey, New York, a tech, Chris Bloncourt, was given a warning by his manager because he posted an ad that ran in the New York Times calling on the company to recognize the workers' choice for union representation. That wasn't enough: after a one-on-one harangue, the manager started working in the cubicle directly behind Bloncourt for months, just to intimidate him.
Just this past August, the NLRB said the manager illegally spied on employees to obtain information about their union activities. It said the company illegally discriminated against union supporters when it "warned" the supporters about posting the ad.
2. In Pittsburgh, also in August, the NLRB said the company broke the law because it threatened to lay off employees for supporting the union. Verizon "has been interfering with, restraining and coercing employees in the exercise of the rights" guaranteed by federal labor law, the NLRB found.
The company engaged in surveillance of employees to discover their union activities and then made sure the workers knew they were under surveillance. The company also issued disciplinary warnings against union supporters for distributing union materials while allowing other nonunion distributions in the workplace.
3. In Long Beach, California, in March, Verizon sent senior managers from their New Jersey corporate headquarters to go cubicle to cubicle, telling employees that "you will not get raises under the union contract."
4. Verizon Wireless call centers that had a growing number of union supporters were shut down between 2000 and 2004, putting 2,000 people out of work in Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey. The NLRB also found that Verizon broke labor law by engaging in retaliatory discipline against two union supporters in Orangeburg, New York. In this case, as is all too often true, the penalty was meaningless. Verizon merely had to send a notice to workers that it wouldn't break the law again — workers who had lost their jobs because Verizon moved that work to a new facility in South Carolina.
So hearing just these examples — and remember that Verizon is just one of countless companies that engage in exactly this same kind of illegal behavior — we think most people would agree that our system of labor law is broken.
How Organizing is Changing
No one in the labor movement believes that the Employee Free Choice Act is like a magic wand — wave it and automatically millions of workers have signed up for a union voice. Organizing remains hard work. In my union, CWA, we've always looked at organizing as providing support for workers who want a union.
It's very much a grassroots effort — building the union from the bottom up. We support workers as they build a committee — as big as possible — that demonstrates support for a union voice. We encourage committee members to publicly stand up for the union they want. For example, we'll produce materials that show the photos and names of all the committee members, so their co-workers can take strength from the committee's strength.
We also find that rank and file CWA members are very effective in talking and working with members who are in an organizing campaign. They have a lot of credibility, they've been there before.
Organizing and Immigrant Workers
All of organized labor also has been involved in the struggle for immigrant workers' rights for decades. And for those decades, we have supported comprehensive immigration reform. That's not, however, what President Bush and the Senate bill put forward earlier this year.
Our current system is a good model if your goal is to allow the exploitation of all workers, both U.S. and foreign-born. Employers can readily turn to a pool of workers to drive down wages, benefits, and work standards, with little fear of complaint from workers or investigation by the government.
The proposed expansion of special visa programs — that Bill Gates and others keep pressing for — will result in even more U.S. tech workers left unemployed or forced to train their foreign-born counterparts who are brought in to work at significantly lower wages.
So what's the answer: make workers' rights, not corporate greed, the focus and heart of immigration reform.
1. Build a system that gives every immigrant a path to citizenship, with the rights and the obligations that citizenship carries.
2. Eliminate the call for an expanded "guest worker" program that exists only to provide employers with a steady stream of vulnerable workers with virtually no rights and guaranteed second-class status.
3. Reduce and eliminate special visas like the H-1B that have allowed companies to expand their bottom lines at the expenses of tens of thousands of technical and professional workers.
We need to end those indentured servitude policies. These steps will help produce an immigration system that will stop worker exploitation and uphold workers' rights.
One thing I've learned in my years in the labor movement is that a union voice and collective bargaining rights do make a difference. And, I'm optimistic for the future. I truly believe that the labor movement will help restore a middle-class life and the opportunities that go with it for American families.
It's taking a lot of hard work. We're constantly reminded that unions today represent just 8 percent of private sector workers. But we've been there before — in the days before the organizing waves of the 1930s. We determined to get it done. And, I welcome as many of you who want to join this great movement and this fight.
Let me end with some words from CWA's legal counsel, Mary O'Melveny, who was honored earlier this year. At that award ceremony, she said "You can be trouble shooters and trouble makers. You can be inspired and inspire. You have the power because you are on the right side and that is the most important power. Don't let anyone tell you different."
Then she went on to close with one of my favorite quotes by Shirley Chisolm, who said:
"Service is the rent you pay for a space on this earth."
American workers are looking forward to collecting your rent.
Thanks for the opportunity to speak with you today, and I'm happy to take your questions.
