***Please forward widely, especially to your academic contacts.***
SCHOLARS FOR EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE
Dear Colleagues:
We write to ask you to lend your name in support of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which is currently before Congress. EFCA seeks to streamline the process by which workers can join unions and strengthen employees' right to obtain a collective bargaining agreement from a hostile employer. Labor law reform is urgently needed to help correct the economic imbalance in our country that contributed to causing today's devastating economic crisis. Stronger unions are also part of the solution; maintaining and increasing workers' purchasing power is critical to moving the country out of recession. We feel that this legislation is vital to restore the labor movement and improve the prospects for working people, hard hit by the current downturn.
In an effort to show support for the EFCA, we are asking scholars in Massachusetts and across the country to sign on to the petition below initiated by the Political & Economic Research Institute at UMass Amherst. Though initiated among social scientists we hope colleagues from all disciplines - as referred to in the letter - will join us in this once in a generation opportunity to move the scales back toward justice. If you would like to expand on the petition by including some words on how it is relevant to your discipline, please let us know.
To sign onto the petition you can fill out the form on the PERI site here (http://www.peri.umass.edu/sefca/ <https://webmail.camh.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.peri.umass.edu/sefca/> ) or e-mail [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> and you will be added to the petition. This list will be used for public distribution so please indicate if you are not willing to have your name publicly listed and used in possible ads. Any public distribution will indicate that your institutional affiliation is used for identification purposes only. Detailed information on the EFCA is available at the Massachusetts Jobs with Justice website (www.massjwj.net <https://webmail.camh.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.massjwj.net/> ) or you can call (617) 524-8778 with any questions.
Thank you for your support and please forward this to any of your colleagues who you think might be interested.
Scholars in Support of the Employee Free Choice Act
We, the undersigned scholars, support the Employee Free Choice Act.
As economists, we understand the key role of collective bargaining in ensuring that workers receive an adequate share of the gains from their rising productivity. The decline in the percentage of workers covered by collective bargaining over the last thirty-five years is a major cause of the wide and growing gap between productivity and wages. This gap has contributed to the current financial crisis and deepening recession, as credit and unsustainable asset appreciation took the place of wage increases. The suppression of wages has also exacerbated economic inequality, and with it a host of other serious economic and social ills.
As law, labor studies, and business scholars, we understand that more than half of America's non-union workers want a union in their workplace, but are prevented from getting one by a combination of weak law and employer interference. Last year, fewer than one out of every eight hundred workers who wanted a union was able to get one through the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) representation process. And we are mindful that the current NLRB representation process impedes development of the positive labor-management relationships that are essential in a high performance economy.
As political scientists, we understand that the current NLRB representation process routinely subjects workers to employer pressures that should not be tolerated in a democratic society and are antithetical to free and fair elections.
As historians, we understand the contribution of the labor movement to the well-being and quality of life of America's workers, union and non-union alike. Unions and collective bargaining are essential to workplace democracy and justice on the job. Unions truly are the people who "brought you the weekend"- and contributed to the creation of Social Security, free and universal public education, equal rights, and much else. We are keenly aware that the majority sign-up route to union recognition provided by the Employee Free Choice Act has a long history and is in widespread use today in the U.S. and many other countries.
As human rights experts, we know that the freedom of workers to form unions and bargain collectively is a fundamental human right. We are appalled by the state of workers' freedom to form unions to in the U.S. today. Passage of the Employee Free Choice Act will greatly advance the protection of this fundamental human right.
As sociologists, anthropologists and scholars of all disciplines, we understand the importance of a strong, independent and democratic labor movement as a counterweight against excessive corporate power and a bulwark of social inclusion and political participation.
As occupational health researchers, clinicians and practitioners, we recognize that union environments have lower rates of occupational disease and injury. A powerful labor movement strengthens the ability of workers to identify workplace hazards and push their employers create safer workplaces.
Accordingly, for each of these reasons and more, we strongly support the Employee Free Choice Act and all of its provisions.
>> Download the list of over 1,200 signatories as of May 15, 2009 <https://webmail.camh.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.peri.umass.edu/fileadmin/pdf/other_publication_types/efca_files/Scholars_EFCA_May15.pdf>
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Win the Employee Free Choice Act - visit http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/ <https://webmail.camh.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/> , http://jwj.org/freechoice/index.html <https://webmail.camh.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://jwj.org/freechoice/index.html> , and http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion <https://webmail.camh.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion> . Donate to the media campaign: https://secure.ga6.org/08/turnaroundamericafund?source=taafundwebpage <https://webmail.camh.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=https://secure.ga6.org/08/turnaroundamericafund?source=taafundwebpage> .
TO UNSUBSCRIBE, send an email to [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> with a Subject of "Unsub Workers' Rights" or to [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> with a Subject of "Unsub Street Heat".
[Workers' Rights] posts opportunities for you to learn about and show solidarity with workplace and working class struggles. And these events are opportunities for JwJ members to fulfill their pledge: "I'll be there for workers' rights at least five times a year!" <https://webmail.camh.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.jwj.org/pledge.html> This is the core mission of Jobs with Justice (www.jwj.org <https://webmail.camh.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.jwj.org/> ), affirming that workers' rights are human rights. To subscribe, send an email to [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> with a Subject of "Subscribe Worker's Rights".
Western Mass Jobs with Justice
640 Page Blvd #101
Springfield MA 01104
(413) 827-0301
Street Heat is the AFL-CIO mobilization program. [Street Heat] is the e-newsletter of the Mobilization Committee of the Pioneer Valley Central Labor Council in cooperation with the Hampshire/Franklin Central Labor Council. All Affiliates and Delegates to these CLCs receive [Street Heat] unless they opt out. Other activists may opt in by sending an email to [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> with a Subject of "Subscribe Street Heat".
Pioneer Valley Central Labor Council
640 Page Blvd
Springfield MA 01104
(413) 732-7970
--
Emily Kawano
Exec. Dir., Center for Popular Economics & SEN
413-545-0743
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Carles Muntaner
Psychiatric and Addictions Nursing Research Chair
Social Equity and Health
Center for Addictions and Mental Health
and
Full Professor
Bloomberg Schhol of Nursing
Dalla Lana School of Public Health
& School of Medicine
University of Toronto
416 2099505
Adjunct Positions
Department of Mental Health
Johns Hopkins University
Bloomberg School of Public Health
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