Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Rachel Maddow & SEIU President Andy Stern on EFCA

It's worth the nine minutes it takes to watch this video of Rachel Maddow and Andy Stern discuss the Employee Free Choice Act, and why it's not going to destroy America for our workers to have the right, the free choice, to decide for themselves whether they use a card check system or a secret ballot system in the union-forming process.



Should American workers be able to freely form unions, without having to follow silly rules set up by our largest corporate employers to their own benefit, or not? That is the question.

For the political nitty-gritty on who's for/against passage of this bill on Capitol Hill, as well as a short, recent history of the path EFCA has been on to get to its current point, click on this link and read away.

2 comments:

  1. Actually, she gets busted pretty hard on this here:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZkvNKy0tww

    ReplyDelete
  2. frankstrategiesblog: Actually, we don't share the same definitions for "busted pretty hard." Your video plays up a gangster image from the days in our history when Al Capone-like figures were sent off to Alcatraz to fearmonger a fine point in the bill that could easily be interpreted in many ways. The critical part of your argument simply brings up the arguable point of whether EFCA should be more strictly defined, which many think would constrict labor's ability to bargain, rather than protect it.

    Bottom line: Workers should have the right to organize on their terms, not on employers' terms. Americans have been spoon-fed the anti-labor line for 40 years now that unions are bad for America. The critical truth is that the larger structure that holds labor, wages, health care, retirement funds, unemployment benefits, et al is not supporting America's working middle class. EFCA is simply one step in the direction to restore balance within this structure.

    Anti-EFCA arguments that leave out fearmongering tactics would be easier to swallow.

    ReplyDelete