Oct. 26, 2005—Working families and their allies are gearing up for the nation’s largest-ever mobilization to support workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain collectively. Throughout the week of Dec. 5–10, thousands of workers in 63 cities—and the number is growing daily—will take the fight to restore workers’ freedom to form unions to the White House, statehouses and front doors of employers that deny workers’ rights.
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| Former Verizon Wireless worker Clyde Rucker says he was fired for trying to form a union. |
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The nationwide events are part of a massive global mobilization on Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day, the anniversary of the 1948 ratification of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which includes the freedom of workers to form unions.
Some 92 percent of private-sector U.S. employers force workers to attend anti-union meetings by threatening them with discipline or dismissal if they refuse and 75 percent hire anti-worker firms to fight organizing attempts, according to an Oct. 18 report by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions’ Annual Study of Trade Union Rights Violations.
Clyde Rucker is one of those workers. Speaking before a crowd of more than 100 representatives of union, community, civil rights and religious groups at a Dec. 10 Voice@Work planning meeting at the AFL-CIO’s national office in Washington, D.C., Rucker described how he was fired for trying to form a union.
Rucker says he was fired in April 2003 from his job as a customer service representative at Verizon Wireless in Laurel, Md., after he talked with workers about forming a union with the Communications Workers of America. He says company officials constantly watched him and pressured him to stop pushing for a union.
“We have to fight everywhere for the right to join a union,” says Rucker. “We have to become more vigilant and continue to speak out, Rucker says. “Corporate injustice anywhere is a threat to workers everywhere.”
Dec. 10 Actions Set for United States and Around the Globe
Across the United States, at rallies, town hall meetings, candlelight vigils and teach-ins, union members and their allies will highlight the obstacles workers face when seeking to join a union at work and showcase strategies for the overcoming those obstacles. In Washington, D.C., a broad-based coalition will hold a huge rally Dec. 8 near the White House to protest the Bush administration’s plan to take away bargaining rights from federal workers in the Defense and Homeland Security departments.
Workers in Boston plan to march throughout the city, stopping at workplaces where workers are trying to form unions, before holding a rally at the state capitol. Teach-ins are scheduled at Georgetown University and other colleges others across the nation to inform students of the plight of America’s workers. In six communities in four states, workers plan to distribute fliers asking the public to support striking Verizon Wireless workers.
Workers taking part in Dec. 10 actions in the United States will be joined by workers around the world—from countries as diverse as Bosnia, Cambodia and Bahrain—who will hold events to support human rights, including workers’ freedom to form unions. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney will join hundreds of other global union leaders in Hong Kong Dec. 10 for a rally to coincide with the meeting of the World Trade Organization.
Employee Free Choice Act Would Strengthen Workers’ Freedom to Join Unions
During the Voice@Work meeting, Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) called on community groups to press members of Congress to support the Employee Free Choice Act. Introduced by a bipartisan coalition in Congress, S. 842 and H.R. 1696 would strengthen protections for workers’ freedom to choose a union by requiring employers to recognize a union after a majority of workers signs cards authorizing union representation. It also would provide for mediation and arbitration of first-contract disputes and authorize stronger penalties for violation of the law when workers seek to form a union.
With 204 Employee Free Choice Act co-sponsors in the House, Sanchez says another 14 are needed to force a vote the Republican leadership to bring the bill to the House floor for a vote.
“Dec. 10 is about issues all over the world,” AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson told the Voice@Work meeting. “We have to be passionate and put our hearts and bodies on the line,” says Chavez-Thompson. “Dec. 10 is the best time to do that. On Dec. 10 all our issues come together: civil rights, human rights and women’s rights.”
“For all practical purposes, Americans have lost the freedom to form unions,” Sweeney says. “Our labor laws are weak and so feebly enforced that…workers join the union in spite the law.”
Strong Community Support for Workers’ Struggles Form Unions
“There is lawlessness in the American workplace,” says David Bonior, chairman of the workers’ advocacy group American Rights at Work. Many of the tactics employers use to prevent workers from forming unions “are perfectly legal, but they are wrong,” says Bonior, who took part in the Voice@Work meeting.
A study by Kate Bronfenbrenner of Cornell University found that private-sector employers illegally fire employees for union activity in at least 25 percent of all organizing efforts. Three in four use workers’ supervisors to pressure workers to vote against the union. Many employers also threaten to close or move the company if workers choose a union.
The fight for workers’ rights has drawn strong support from community groups and political leaders. “Civil rights are labor rights and labor rights are human rights,” says Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP’s Washington office. Speaking to the Voice@Work meeting, Shelton says the nation’s oldest civil rights group was eager to be part of the Dec. 10 coalition. For instance, NAACP Chairman Julian Bond recorded a public service announcement that promotes Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day, activities.
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