Why do I support the Employee Free Choice Act.? A good friend of mine works for a trucking company. He is a hard workingman who supports his wife and two children and lives in the Kanawha valley. His employers told him and his co-workers that if the thought of organizing would ever come up – they would shut down the business. This is why we need to enact the Employee Free Choice Act. We need our unions to protect us now more than ever.
We have seen tragic examples of companies cutting safety corners, working their employees too much – too fast at the expense of safety. We see that in the mines, and even in our hospitals with medical staff overworked under-staffed and with little fair pay.
We also see the consequence of choosing the cheap shortsighted solution of going over-seas. The quality of our foods, toys, and other products are in serious doubt.
Nations are great, not because of what they are against, but what they are for. We are a nation that values the basic human liberty to organize. We are a nation that values fair and equal treatment of our workers. We are a nation that that must maintain our status as the world’s best and most productive workforce in the world. To maintain that we should strengthens penalties for companies that illegally coerce or intimidate their employees in an effort to prevent them from forming a union. We need this bill and I support it. This is also on my web page, www.rogerdecanio.com.
Why do I support the Worker Freedom Bill? The Bill of Rights protects us from government intrusions upon our basic human rights. The Worker Freedom Bill does the same, but against intrusions from our employers. Many employers have forced employees to participate in and listen to the employers’ beliefs on unionization, politics or religion. This bill will prohibit employers from forcing their employees to participate in religious prayer breakfasts for example. This bill will give an employee the freedom to practice his or her faith without undue pressure. What this bill will do is give the employees a choice to opt out of meetings that have nothing to do with the operation of the business, practice one’s faith, politics, and other non-work related issues without pressures from their employer. This bill provides the freedom from fear – the fear of intimidation or reprisal. I have highlighted this issue on my webpage. www.rogerdecanio.com.
Why do I support public employees right to bargain collectively? West Virginia is one of just 10 states in the country that does not give any of its public employees the authority to collectively bargain with their employer. About 17 percent of all employed people in West Virginia worked for state and local government in 1990 (WV Bureau of Employment Programs 1991). We can no longer allow such a great portion of our workforce to be without a voice and bargain collectively. The freedom to form unions and bargain collectively is a fundamental human right. We have seen the way the Bush administration has deprived the Department of Homeland Security collective bargaining and a voice to 160,000 Federal workers. When this Administration created the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), they explicitly denied airport screeners and others any opportunity to organize and bargain collectively. We must help such large segments of our state and national workforce to have a voice. This is an issue of basic fairness and human rights.
Roger A. Decanio, November 17, 2007.
