If Employee Free Choice Act is Doomed,
Has Labor a Plan B to Regain Its Power?

Let’s get real. There’s not a single top labor leader who believes that the Democrats can muster the required 60 votes needed in the Senate to ensure passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. And even if by some miracle, Congress were to approve EFCA, there are clearly not enough votes to override President Bush’s certain veto.

That means there’s no possibility of getting an Employee Free Choice law until after the next Congress meets in the early months of 2009, when we’ll be back to square one in our long campaign for a worker’s right to join a union. What do our leaders propose we do during the next two years, after they’ve been complaining all along they can’t do much organizing until workers feel free to join unions?

Do they have a Plan B to revitalize the unions, even without the protection of Free Choice? If so, what is it? Or are they simply counting on the Democrats to capture the White House and expand their majority in both Houses of Congress in the 2008 elections. Even if that happens -- and we hope it will -- does that guarantee that “Free Choice” is sure of passage?

Remember 1992-1994, when Bill Clinton was in the White House and the Democrats controlled both Houses of Congress? The Dems failed to pass any protective labor legislation, including a bill to ban the use of replacements of workers who went on strike. And remember, it was 1993, when Clinton, as president, initiated the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), over the bitter objection of the unions that helped elect him.

Labor leaders made a serious mistake in assuming that because Free Choice passed the House, it would be fairly easy to get it approved by the Senate. They ran a campaign that was largely limited to getting union members to send e-mails to their congressional representatives. Why didn’t each of the 48 members of the AFL-CIO Executive Council get on the campaign trail to present labor’s message on radio and TV outlets and public forums?

Why weren't they able to involve African-American and Hispanic communities to protest this gross violation of workers' rights? Why was the campaign for EFCA limited to workers who were already members of unions, with no successful effort to mobilize non-union workers, who would be the beneficiaries if Free Choice became the law of the land?

How Labor Can Mobilize for a Winning Counter-Attack

Supposing the AFL-CIO and the CtW issued a joint public announcement, aimed at the nation's employers, that they will use all the resources at their command to fight for the reinstatement of any workers who are fired illegally for pro-union activity? That announcement would serve as a morale-booster for unorganized workers; it would put employers on notice that they would face a full-scale, open-ended battle if they dared to fire any of their workers for trying to form or join a union.

All central labor councils and their affiliated local unions should be alerted to be on the lookout for workers who are fired for pro-union activity. When such firings occur, unions should treat each case as a cause célèbre, using mass picketing, radio, TV and newspaper publicity, consumer boycotts, and public meetings where the employer can be invited to justify the firings ad where the victims can tell their side of the story.

By transforming the denial of a worker's right to join a union into a violation of human and civil rights, unions will be in a strong position to rally support from African-American and Hispanic workers, who have also suffered abusive treatment from employers.

If harassment and firing of pro-union workers decline significantly, it would improve the climate for. organizing. And whenever a union is able to win reinstatement for discharged workers, it would be in an excellent position to organize a majority of the employer's workforce.

The advantage of this plan is that it could be put into effect almost immediately. It does not require costly expenditures. There is no need for extensive structural adjustments. And very important, it gives unions the opportunity to take the offensive,

If AFL-CIO and CtW leaders have a better plan, let them put it on the table for debate. If not, do they have no Plan B?

Our two weekly columns and their archives (LaborTalk and The World of Labor) can be viewed and downloaded at our website: www.laboreducator.org.