Why is it So Important?
Why is it so important to dump Time Warner and switch to union TV and internet? Because the future of millions of workers--not just those at Time Warner or AT&T are ultimately affected by Time Warner's union-busting tactics.
The difference between the way these two companies approach their greatest resources--their employees--is the difference between the present and the future.
Time Warner acts as if employees do not even have the right to form a union without interference, coercion, threats, or intimidation. In practically every instance, when workers attempt to organize at a Time Warner workplace, the company has used all the union-busting tactics available—both legal AND illegal (click here for Time Warner Horror Stories).
The way the National Labor Relations Act (the law that is supposed to protect workers' right to organize) has been enforced, there is almost no protection left to workers. That's the way it is right now for tens of millions of workers in the U.S.
AT&T, on the other hand, has acknowledged the right of employees to form a union. In fact, when a majority of employees in a particular group sign cards demonstrating their decision to form a union, the company recognizes their decision and begins to negotiate a contract with the union. This process is known as "card check." That's the way the future could be for tens of millions of workers in the U.S.,--that is, when the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) becomes law.
The Benefit of Collective Bargaining
Collective Bargaining is the primary reason a middle class exists in this country. Unions, through the process of collective negotiations with employers, set the standards of work in hundreds of industries and professions. Retirement security, health benefits, paid vacations, job security, health and safety standards, paid sick leave, holiday pay, as well as dozens of other benefits the Middle Class has come to take for granted, were won and protected by members of unions.
Non-union employers had to extend many of the benefits union members won elsewhere to attract employees.
With increasingly vicious attacks on the right to organize unions by employers like Time Warner, and with trade policies that encourage the loss of manufacturing jobs in the U.S., all of these benefits are slipping away in non-union workplaces, and union members have to fight harder and harder with each contract just to hold on to them. Without strong unions and the ability to negotiate wages and benefits, the very existence of the Middle Class is threatened.
EFCA
The Employee Free Choice Act would essentially make the "card check" procedure described above the law of the land. This will essentially re-establish workers' right to form unions.
The law would also establish real penalties for employers who violate employees' right to organize a union. In the present, when employers like Time Warner violate the law repeatedly--by threatening or harassing employees for instance, the typical punishment is usually limited to a requirement that the employer post a notice stating that they broke the law--no fines, no jail time,--just a notice. In a future with EFCA as law, employers will have to pay a significant fine when they trample on workers right to organize.
In the present, even when workers overcome the anti-union assaults of employers like Time Warner and successfully form a union under the National Labor Relations Board's current rules, they could be stuck struggling with their employers for years to gain a first contract--or may not ever reach an agreement at all! In a future with EFCA, mediation and arbitration processes will exist to help workers and their employers reach a first contract within a year.
The era of Time Warner-type union-busting is coming to an end. When EFCA becomes law, tens of millions of workers across the country will be able to decide for themselves whether they want to exercise their right to negotiate the terms and conditions of their work with their employers--a right AT&T employees already have.
Click here or more information on the Employee Free Choice Act.
Click here to sign the petition to support EFCA.
