Committee on Education and Labor : U.S. House of Representatives

Press Releases

Workers Tell Congress Of Serious Employer Interference When They Try To Form Unions
To Strengthen America's Middle Class, Workers' Bargaining Rights Must be Restored, Say Witnesses

Thursday, February 8, 2007

 

WASHINGTON, DC -- In testimony before the House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions today, workers told their own personal stories of the serious abuses committed against them by their employers when they attempted, along with their coworkers, to form a union to bargain for better wages, benefits, and working conditions.

The testimony clearly showed that the current system by which workers seek to form unions and bargain is badly broken, with employers routinely intimidating, harassing, reassigning, or even firing workers who want to form a union. It showed the need for Congress to pass legislation, the Employee Free Choice Act, that would allow workers to have a union when a majority of them sign up for one.

"Once word reached management that we were trying to organize, they did everything they could to stop us from exercising our right to form a union," said Teresa Joyce, a customer care representative in Lebanon, Virginia, who worked for AT&T Wireless until it was acquired by Cingular Wireless, a responsible employer that allowed workers to choose a union. "Our supervisors constantly threatened that AT&T Wireless would leave our town and that we would lose our jobs."

Ivo Camilo, a former employee of Blue Diamond Growers in Sacramento, California, was fired from his job there in April 2005 soon after he told the company he wanted union representation. "Management had been campaigning against the union since December 2004, long before I got fired . . . They had put out more than 30 anti-union flyers," testified Camilo. "In group captive audience meetings and one-on-one talks, company officials and supervisors threatened that we could lose our pensions and other benefits if the union came in. They threatened that the plant would close."

Keith Ludlum, an employee at Smithfield Foods in Tar Heel, North Carolina, testified about how he recently regained his job at Smithfield after 12 years of litigation following his termination from the company in 1994 for his support of union representation. Sadly, Ludlum testified, not much has changed. "The harassment in the plant continues to this day despite all the litigation and promises for a fair new election," he said.

Citing the danger of working in a food processing plant, Ludlum said that passing the Employee Free Choice Act was critical in order for him and his coworkers to receive better treatment on the job. "We need to help stop the injuries," he said. "We need help in getting Smithfield to change and do the right thing for its workers."

Lawmakers in the House introduced the Employee Free Choice Act, H.R. 800, earlier this week. By enabling workers to choose for themselves whether or not to form a union and bargain for better wages, the legislation would help strengthen America's middle class, said Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. To read Miller's remarks on the bill introduction, click here.

For more information on the Employee Free Choice Act, click here. To see testimony from economic and labor law experts at today's hearing on the importance of the Employee Free Choice Act, click here.

To read the opening statement from today's hearing of Rep. Robert Andrews, chairman of the House HELP Subcommittee, click here.

 


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Tom Kiley / Rachel Racusen
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