Barack Obama
In response to CWA's questionnaire Barack Obama said the following about the Employee Free Choice Act:
I am an original co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act and voted for the legislation because I firmly believe that workers should choose whether they want to join a union without fear of intimidation, coercion, or threats to their livelihoods. I am convinced that millions of Americans would join a union if given a fair opportunity, but the National Labor Relations Act in its current form too often allows employers to violate workers’ rights with impunity. The Employee Free Choice Act is a bipartisan effort to make the process of organizing less vulnerable to employer lawbreaking by requiring card-check recognition and increasing penalties on employers that violate the law.
I was disappointed that the Senate failed to pass EFCA. Strengthening our workers’ right to organize shouldn’t be controversial – or partisan. It will be working Americans, united and organized, that will help us restore a sense of shared prosperity and security to this nation. I will continue to advocate for EFCA as a senator and will sign it as president. As your question notes, it took 10 years for the Congress to give America’s lowest paid workers a raise. That was far too long (and we still need to index the minimum wage to inflation), and I will work hard as president to ensure that we don’t have to wait another 10 years to protect the collective bargaining rights of America’s workers. Part of what it will take to get EFCA through the Congress is an ability to get beyond this “50 plus one” strategy that has characterized our politics for far too long. We need both a President with the determination to work for this important legislation and a Congress with the means to pass it. I believe that I am the candidate who can unite the country, work effectively across party lines, and change the partisan atmosphere in Washington. And, equally important, as the general election nominee I would be the only candidate who could expand the electoral map, creating opportunities for Democrats in areas where the party has not competed recently, and pick up labor-friendly seats in Congress. That’s what it will take to get EFCA signed into law.
EFCA is a starting point, but there is more to do. It should be an unfair labor practice to discriminate or threaten to discriminate against any employee who doesn’t want to sit and listen to anti-union propaganda during working hours. And I will revoke the anti-worker, anti-union executive orders President Bush signed. Bush wiped out labor-management cooperation in the federal government. I will restore it. He forced federal contractors to put up posters telling workers that they have a right not to join a union. I will require federal contractors to inform workers of all of their rights – most important, their right to organize and their right to bargain collectively. And he barred Project Labor Agreements on federal construction projects. These agreements assure that projects will be built without strikes, lock-outs, or other disruptions that might delay completion and increase costs to taxpayers. But they do that the right way – by making sure that construction workers get a fair wage and benefits negotiated by their union. I will withdraw that executive order and issue a new executive order encouraging project labor agreements.
And I will add one executive order that Bush didn’t consider. The American people should not have to worry about their tax dollars being spent by federal contractors to hire union-busting consultants who are paid to stop workers from organizing. When I am President, employers doing business with the federal government will no longer be allowed to use federal funds to oppose union organizing.