The Employee Free Choice Act, was introduced last week with 232 co-sponsors, including Arkansas Representatives Vic Snyder, Mike Ross and Marion Berry. The bill would make it easier for employees to organize and protect them against unfair labor practices and tactics some companies use to prevent workers from forming unions, said Alan Hughes, president of the Arkansas AFL-CIO.
Congressman John Boozman is the only Arkansas member opposed to the legislation that would make it easier for workers to organize. Wal-Mart Stores shares Boozman’s opposition to the proposed legislation, said Wal-Mart spokesman Robert Traynham
Lioneld Jordan, AFSCME Local 965 member and President of the Northwest Arkansas Labor Council, said unions are not just about wages and benefits, but about respect and dignity for workers. Things like the weekend, the 40-hour work week, overtime pay, and health and retirement benefits that many people take for granted are a result of the efforts of unions.
Unions are needed as much, if not more, now than they ever have been in history, he said, with the growing trend of outsourcing American jobs overseas. Corporations are sending jobs to third-world countries, where they abuse the workers in sweatshops with low wages and little concern for safety, Jordan said, just so they can make cheaper products. Unions bring workers higher wages and safe working conditions, which translates into a better life and education for the worker and their children.
Write Congressman Boozman and tell him to support the rights of working families in Arkansas.
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