U.S. Senate vote expected in June on the Employee Free Choice Act
Minnesota's Norm Coleman is target for push to vote 'yes'

From the Minneapolis Labor Review, May 25, 2007

By Steve Share, Labor Review editor

MINNEAPOLIS — With the U.S. Senate expected to vote on the Employee Free Choice Act in June, Minnesota unions are waging a campaign to urge U.S. Senator Norm Coleman to vote yes on the bill. (Minnesota’s other U.S. Senator, Amy Klobuchar, is a co-sponsor of the bill).

Supporters say the legislation — S. 1041 — would help restore the middle class by making it easier for American workers to form unions and bargain collectively for better wages, benefits and working conditions.

Supporters also charge that current labor law fails to protect workers from employer abuses during union organizing campaigns, leading to elections tainted by employer excesses.

Coleman, however, has written to constituents saying he believes the current system of  National Labor Relations Board elections “has worked well.”

That position doesn’t square with the experience of workers at Walker Methodist Health Center in Minneapolis, however, who endured a four-year delay in union recognition after voting under the NLRB process.

Their story is just one of many in Minnesota and nationwide illustrating why current labor laws fail workers.

The Employee Free Choice Act would:

-- allow workers to form unions by signing union authorization cards;

-- provide mediation and arbitration for first-contract disputes;

-- establish stronger penalties for violations of employee rights.

Affiliates of the Minneapolis Central Labor Union Council have collected more than 6,000 postcards to Coleman. The CLUC also plans a phone bank the week of June 11 to generate phone calls to Coleman.

To reach Coleman’s office by phone:
-- 651-645-0323
-- 800-642-6041

For more information on the Employee Free Choice Act, visit:
www.americanrightsatwork.org
www.aflcio.org

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