CWA Local 9400-Worker's Rights

CWA NEWS

Workers Rights Are Human Rights

The right to form a union is among the basic human rights guaranteed by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, recognized by the U.S. government 13 years earlier in the National Labor Relations Act.

Yet here in the United States, more than 20,000 workers were fired or discriminated against in 2004 alone for exercising their right to freedom of association in the workplace, according to National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) annual reports.

Most employers infringe on workers’ freedom to make their own decisions—using legal as well as illegal tactics to thwart workers’ efforts. Nearly all private-sector employers force workers to attend anti-union meetings. More than three-quarters of these employers require workers to sit in one-on-one meetings with supervisors who try to persuade workers to oppose the union. Fully one-quarter of them illegally fire workers, according to Cornell University researcher Kate Bronfenbrenner.

At a Capitol Hill briefing April 19, when lawmakers reintroduced the Employee Free Choice Act, Salt Lake City worker Lori Gay spoke about the intimidation tactics and stalling she faces trying to form a union at Salt Lake Regional Medical Center.

“Management claimed that the hospital would be forced to close if we chose to form a union, and two leading union supporters were fired,” said Lori Gay. “Despite the hospital’s fierce campaign against us, we had an election. Yet, we’ve been waiting three years for the National Labor Relations Board to allow the ballots to be counted.”

The legislation would require employers to recognize their employees choice to form a union after a majority of workers sign cards or petitions authorizing union representation, provide for mediation and arbitration of first-contract disputes and authorize stronger penalties for violation of employee rights when workers seek to form a union and during first-contract negotiations.