Historians in Support of the Employee Free Choice Act

One hundred historians have declared their support for the Employee Free Choice Act, introduced into Congress on March 10 by Senator Tom Harkin and Rep. George Miller. The legislation would make it easier for workers to organize unions and harder for employers to evade them. Workers could obtain a union when fifty percent sign cards authorizing a union. The law would also force employers to respond quickly and bargain in good faith or face increased fines and mandatory, binding arbitration by the National Labor Relations Board.

 

Why are faculty members, who are so notoriously un-organized, speaking on behalf of unions? There are many reasons, but on one level the reason is simple: democracy depends upon it, and our economy needs it.

 

 

The last great depression occurred when unions declined to almost nothing in the 1920s. Republican government cut taxes on the rich and removed many of the regulations of the Progressive era, which in turn allowed bankers and corporations to make sky-high profits. The housing and stock market boomed, and the rich got richer. That led to the crash of 1929.

 

Because labor was not organized, it had almost no restraining influence on government, leading to a vast divide between the rich and the working class.  Sound familiar?

 

In 1935, the Wagner Act made it easier for workers to organize, establishing the right to freedom of association and speech on the job without employer intimidation or interference. The rise of unions paved the way to the Social Security Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, and many of the government safety nets we rely upon today.

 

Because unions gained in strength, workers increased their wages and their buying power. When the economy came out of its stupor during the rapid industrialization of World War II, unions became widespread. The result was the rise of the largest middle class in world history.

 

This history favors two arguments about the need for labor law reform today. Without unions, government will not reflect the needs of the great majority of people who work for a living. Not only will democracy suffer, but wages will stagnate, people cannot afford to buy what they produce, and our economy will suffer.

 

Those who have jobs need to be able to advocate for themselves. Employers will not voluntarily raise wages, and government will not do very much to make that happen either. Only workers themselves can do that, but to do it, they need to be able to harness their numbers in an organized way.

 

Employers will say EFCA takes away the workers right to a secret ballot. It isn't true. If thirty percent or people in a work place petition for it, they can demand a secret ballot election. The trouble is, employer strategies since the 1980s have turned elections into a nightmare of intimidation, delays, and poor results for workers.

 

EFCA allows that if fifty percent petition for a union, it will take effect immediately. The choice of methods belongs to workers, not to the employers, who seem perfectly capable of protecting themselves. Let's face

it: Labor laws are written to protect workers.

 

History shows that we are in a time where worker rights need increased protection. Unions are clearly not the answer to every problem. But for capitalism to function in a democratic manner, we need them.

 

For a list of signers to the historians' petition, and for more information on the Employee Free Choice Act, see the web site (http://LAWCHA.org/tls.php).

******

 

By Michael Honey, Fred and Dorothy Haley Professor of Humanities, President, Labor and Working-Class History Association  University of Washington, Tacoma http://faculty.washington.edu/mhoney/

 

 

David Brody University of California-Davis

 

Alice Kessler-Harris Columbia University

 

Michael Honey University of Washington, Tacoma

 

Joseph Hower Georgetown University

 

Bethany Moreton University of Georgia

 

Brian Greenburg Monmouth University

 

Eileen Boris University of California, Santa Barbara

 

James J. Lorence University of Wisconsin—Marathon County

 

Alison Jaggar University of Colorado, Boulder

(Philosophy)

 

Michael C. Pierce University of Arkansas

 

Charles A. Zappia San Diego Mesa College

 

Susan Hirsch Loyola University, Chicago

 

Thomas Dublin SUNY Binghamton

 

Kevin Boyle Ohio State University

 

Bruce Cohen Worcester State College

 

Eric Fure-Slocum St. Olaf College

 

John S. Olszowka Mercyhurst College

 

Leon Fink University of Illinois, Chicago

 

Harvey Schwartz San Francisco State University

 

David Montgomery Yale University

 

Peter Cole Western Illinois University

 

Jacquelyn Dowd Hall University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

 

Susan Levine University of Illinois, Chicago

 

John L. Revitte Michigan State University

 

Elliott Gorn Brown University

 

Harvey Kaye University of Wisconsin, Green Bay

 

Deborah Cohen University of Missouri, St. Louis

 

Nancy F. Gabin Purdue University

 

Robert Reutenauer Middlesex Community College

 

Charles Williams University of Washington, Tacoma

 

Peter Rachleff Macalester College

 

Michael Denning Yale University

 

Ellen Schrecker Yeshiva University

 

George Hopkins College of Charleston

 

Joshua B. Freeman City University of New York

 

Ina Clausen University of California

 

Jacob Remes Duke University

 

Joseph Abel Rice University

 

Matthew Basso University of Utah

 

Daniel A. Graff University of Notre Dame

 

Daniel Clark Oakland University (Michigan)

 

Michael Kazin Georgetown University

 

Roberta Gold Fordham University

 

John Enyeart Bucknell University

 

Alan Derickson Pennsylvania State University

 

Linda K. Kerber University of Iowa

 

Jennifer Klein Yale University

 

Laurie Mercier Washington State University – Vancouver

 

Fraser Ottanelli University of South Florida

 

John P. Lloyd Cal Poly Pomona

 

Leslie S. Rowland University of Maryland, College Park

 

Scott Saul University of California, Berkeley

 

Andrew H. Lee New York University, Bobst Library

 

James N. Gregory University of Washington

 

Landon Storrs University of Houston

 

Theodore Steinberg Case Western Reserve University

 

David Zonderman North Carolina State University

 

Rachel Batch Widener University

 

Alexander Keyssar Harvard University

 

José A. Soler University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth

 

Liesl Orenic Dominican University (IL)

 

Gordon K. Mantler Duke University

 

Lizabeth Cohen Harvard University

 

Devra Weber University of California, Riverside

 

Randi Storch State University of New York, Cortland

 

Shannan W. Clark Montclair State University

 

Elizabeth Shermer University of California, Santa Barbara

 

Patricia Cooper University of Kentucky

 

Stanford Jacoby University of California, Los Angeles

 

Steven Attewell University of California, Santa Barbara

 

Dolores Janiewski Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand)

 

Jennifer Luff University of California, Irvine

 

Dana Frank University of California, Santa Cruz

 

Elizabeth Lamoree University of California, Santa Barbara

 

Cassandra Engeman University of California, Santa Barbara

 

Tobias Higbie University of California, Los Angeles

 

Mary O. Furner University of California, Santa Barbara

 

Lisa Phillips Indiana State Universsity

 

Jack Epstein Ohio University

 

Matthew Bewig University of Florida

 

Michael Robert Bussel University of Oregon

 

Roxanne Newton Mitchell Community College (NC)

 

Kenneth Fones-Wolf West Virginia University

 

Otto Olsen Northern Illinois University

 

Melvyn Dubofsky State University of New York, Binghamton

 

Robert Schaffer Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania

 

Michelle Haberland Georgia Southern University

 

Linda Gordon New York University

 

Moon-Ho Jung University of Washington

 

Jennifer E. Brooks Auburn University

 

Seth Wigderson University of Maine at Augusta

 

Sean Burns University of California, Santa Cruz

 

Darryl Holter University of Southern California

 

Beth English Princeton University

 

Eric Foner, Columbia University

 

Robert Zieger, University of Florida

 

Mai Ngai, Columbia University

 

Charles Bergquist, University of Washington

 

Nelson Lichtenstein, University of California Santa Barbara

 

Kimberly Phillips, William and Mary

 

Nikhil Pal Singh, University of Washington

 

Michelle Nacy, University of Washington Tacoma

 

Grace Palladino, University of Maryland

Title:
<p></p>

E-mail: Password: