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Message From General President
Sullivan
on Communications Resources and
Employee Free Choice Act The Employee
Free Choice Act, the most important labor legislation in 50 years, was
passed last Wednesday by the House Education and Labor Committee. If
you are not already aware, this is the greatest opportunity for workers
to gain the freedom to make their own decisions about joining a union –
without employer interference. If passed, the Employee Free Choice Act
will streamline the process of choosing a union. The legislation will
establish stronger penalties for violations of employee rights when
workers seek to form a union and during first-contract negotiations
where it will provide mediation and arbitration for first-contract
disputes. Employers who refuse to bargain will simply be taken to
arbitration where the precedent set by local area agreements will be
automatically applied.
This legislation is the highest priority for the entire labor
movement. Current statistics show that 70% of Americans do
not know that employers resist organizing campaigns. What may
be more surprising is that recent polling suggests that 40% of
union members are not aware of employer resistance either.
It is up to each one of us to spread the word about this
important and crucial legislation.
. I am encouraging
any local union to provide any anecdotal stories available detailing the
experiences of individual workers during the course of current or past
organizing campaigns. This especially includes workers who were
threatened, harassed, discriminated against or even fired to attempting
to form a union. Please forward this information to Michael LaFave, who
I have designated as the point person on this important campaign. He
can be reached at 202-662-0833 or mlafave@smwia.org.
. In the coming
days, we will be sending you a series of article templates that can be
customized for local union newsletters. These can also be placed on
your local union websites and used to reach and garner the support of
every member of the SMWIA.
. I have directed
SMWIA staff to create and make available a series of commentary pieces
for use by Local Union Business Managers and leaders interested in
placing them in local newspapers across the country about this important
issue. Please contact Michael LaFave if you are interested in
commentary that can be placed in your local newspaper.
. We have also
developed an action center at www.smwia.org, where members
can link to pages that will assist members in writing Letters to the
Editors. The link to the letter to the editor page, which you can
include on your local union website is http://www.unionvoice.org/
campaign/efcasmwialte/searchsearch-zip?rk=&preview=f.
. Members can also
write letters to their congressional representatives at http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/signthe_EFCA
- in addition to its placement on the International homepage, it can
also be included on your local union websites.
. Additionally, we
have developed a video library – http://www.youtube.com/profile?
user=SheetMetalWorkers - where we will be posting multimedia pieces
documenting worker stories and video clips of interest to this issue.
Individual videos can be embedded onto your local union websites for
easier access by members. Instructions for doing so and the
accompanying code are including on each video’s web page.
. Next week, a
number of AFL-CIO unions will be conducting a series of press
conferences and roundtable events with local political leaders.
Information and details about these events are located at
www.unionvoice.org/aflciopolitics/efca_events.html.
. I encourage you to
participate in any local event by contacting the local coordinator
listed for each event. These events will be used to highlight the
problems with current labor law which is supposed to help facilitate,
not hamper, organizing efforts.
We will be providing more material as action on this legislation
develops. I urge all of you to become more involved in this important
and long term effort.
Sincerely,
MICHAEL J. SULLIVAN
General President
Sheet Metal Workers’ International Association
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