More Than 1,000 Leading Academics
Announce Support for the Employee Free Choice Act
For Immediate Release
Contact: Josh Scannell, AFL-CIO,
202-637-5018
More Than 1,000 Leading Academics Announce Support for the Employee Free
Choice Act Events happening in a dozen states with professors arguing the
historical, economic and legal case for the Employee Free Choice Act
(Washington, May 7) Scholars across the country are calling for passage of
the Employee Free Choice Act, in letters to Congress, symposiums, rallies, and
roundtables starting this week. They will discuss how labor law has weakened
over the last several decades, and why it is more important than ever to
return to workers the freedom to form unions through the Employee Free Choice
Act and to create an economy that works for everyone.
Over 1,000 scholars from disciplines that run the gamut from economics to
sociology have signed a letter expressing their support for the legislation,
calling it critical for lifting our economy out of the recession, and
protecting our democratic values. The letter will be delivered to members of
congress and can be seen at
http://www.peri.umass.edu/
les/Scholars_EFCA.pdf
In addition, more than one hundred fifty historians have signed another
letter in support of the bill through the Labor and Working Class History
Association (LAWCHA). It will also be sent to Congress this week and can be
found at:
http://www.lawcha.org/
“Our nation’s scholars fully understand the implications for our democracy and
our economy when corporate power brokers can deprive working people of the
right to freely organize a union,” says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.
“America’s workers welcome their support for this crucial legislation which
stands to help turn the tide for our
nation’s future.”
“We, the undersigned historians, feel a special obligation to speak out on
behalf of the Employee Free Choice Act. In our courses, we describe how
freedom of association became a prized American right and how, for working
people, freedom of association became a reality when the National Labor
Relations Act of 1935 granted them a protected right to organize and bargain
collectively through representatives of their own choosing. Students know
this. It’s in the New Deal chapter of every textbook. So for them, it comes
as a shock to discover when they enter the working world that they don’t dare
exercise the rights the law says they have,” wrote David Brody, History
Professor Emeritus at University of California, Davis in an open letter to
Congress that will accompany the historians’ petition.
At events nationwide, academics will speak to why a robust labor movement is a
fundamental cornerstone of our democracy and will discuss what the historical
consequences have been when working people did not have a voice at the
workplace. They will also join working people to speak to the process of
forming a union, and how corporations have undermined working peoples’ rights
over the last seventy years.
Events have already happened in many states, such as Nebraska and Indiana,
where professors delivered petitions to elected leaders, and will continue in
cities like Little Rock, Arkansas, Chapel Hill, North Carolina and
Philadelphia.