Workers' Rights under Threat but Some Companies Balance Profit and Good Labor Practices
Feature Story by civilrights.org staff - 5/30/2006
American middle-class families are facing a crisis in trying to combine stagnating incomes with staggering increases in housing, health care, education and transportation, said experts at a May 18 panel discussion.Dr. Christian Weller, senior economist at the Center for American Progress, says that current data shows that families in 2006 are working longer to achieve the same standard of living as in 1980. Moreover, workers' rights in America are still under threat.
In addition to financial straits, American workers face skyrocketing discrimination in the workplace. Every 23 minutes a worker is illegally fired or discriminated against for their support of a union, according to American Rights at Work, a national nonprofit workers' rights advocacy organization.
Furthermore, a 2000 study from the U.S. Trade Deficit Review Commission showed that 51 percent of employers illegally threaten to close down work sites if employees vote for union representation.
Despite such threats, Weller said that unionization strengthens workers' rights and prevents unlawful termination and discrimination, improving the current status of middle-class families. "Enforcing workers' right to join a labor union is a way out of the middle-class crisis," said Weller.
A 2005 survey by Peter D. Hart Research Associates found that 57 million workers in America want unions. However, the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that union members made up only 12.5 percent of all wage and salary workers in 2004, down from 12.9 percent in 2003.
Mary Beth Maxwell, executive director of American Rights at Work, said the decrease can be traced to employers' increased interference with rights at work, as well as a flawed legal system that sometimes penalizes union members.
Most employers who aggressively intimidate, harass and coerce workers seek to undermine union support, but they often get away with it. A recently released report by American Rights at Work, Undermining the Right to Organize: Employer Behavior During Union Representation Campaigns, indicates that 82 percent of employers hire high-priced union-busting consultants to fight union organizing drives.
The Employee Free Choice Act, which counts 215 co-sponsors in the House and about 40 in the Senate, would enforce penalties against employers' unlawful conduct and guarantee workers' self-representation. The bill would introduce the majority sign-up model that would force employers to recognize a labor union when a majority of employees provide signed cards indicating their desire for union representation.
There are already a number of companies that balance profitability with workers' rights and needs, providing evidence that such practices are not only possible, but also desirable.
For example, Cingular Wireless negotiated its first union contract with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) in 2000. Since then 39,000 employees - more than 85 percent of Cingular's workforce - have gained union representation.
Lew Walker of Cingular said that the company's pledge not to interfere with employee union organizing efforts has created a socially responsible environment. "Corporate America is changing for the better, becoming more socially responsible" said Marc Gunther, senior writer at Fortune and columnist for the CNNMoney.com. "But there is still a long way to go."
