Free choice would level the playing field

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/1333308.html

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Editor's Note: James Andrews is the president of the state chapter of the AFL-CIO. This essay is in part a response to a recent piece by a Raleigh lawyer who explored why a proposed labor-law change is a bad idea for employers.The essay was edited for length.

Free choice would level the playing field

In all the talk of bailouts and bubbles, our nation's pundits are missing the fundamental point that working Americans have been suffering much longer than companies like AIG or Citibank.

For years communities have watched good manufacturing jobs disappear. The new high-tech jobs that were supposed to replace the old ones never materialized. Instead, working families have scrambled for part-time, underpaid McJobs that don't pay the rent or bills.

For the last 25 years, real wages have dropped, even though working people's productivity has soared. People have struggled to maintain their living standards through credit cards and loans. But eventually, that led to economic meltdown, because you can't maintain a consumer-driven economy on debt forever. And you can't rebuild or maintain a middle class on credit. You have to do it the old-fashioned way. Workers need to be able to bargain for decent wages and benefits in order for our nation to have a true, sustainable recovery.

New labor law reform legislation, the Employee Free Choice Act, will restore workers' freedom to improve their living standards -- and our economy -- by forming unions, free from employer interference and intimidation. It will add balance back into our economy, and give working people the tools they need to win fair wages and treatment in corporate America. There won't be a sustainable recovery unless we address workers' ability to bargain for a better deal.

People who have a union, after all, make 30 percent more than those who don't. In North Carolina, the union difference is an average $9,878 and workers with a union are also much more likely to have health insurance and benefits.

FULL story at link.