Today I received a letter from you in response to a letter I wrote you regarding the Employee Free Choice Act. To say I was disheartened at your response was the understatement of the year.
You stated that you believe that employees and employers are entitled to fair, confidential, and democratic elections when it comes to the decision of unionization. You further stated that you wanted to guarantee employees free choice by secret ballot without intimidation or pressure presumably by union organizers. What you fail to realize is the pressures Corporations put on their employees when it comes to the “so called elections”.
In the current corporate-controlled process, it’s not free choice when management can bombard employees with anti-union messages anywhere, anytime in the workplace while workers can talk about the union only on break time and only in the break area, and union organizers have no right to set foot in the workplace. Further, I take you to the case of Gary E. McClain, a constituent of yours, who worked for Pactiv Corporation. Mr. McClain was picked up by the local sheriff, committed, and drugged against his will for daring to suggest that the union be allowed to speak.
You talk very highly of protecting one’s right to vote in your letter, but you fail to acknowledge that a majority of people wanting to unionize is a democratic process. You ignore current companies such as AT&T, Kaiser Permanente, and Harley Davidson, who accept a majority sign-up as the employee’s voice. Finally, how is a majority of working men and women who choose to act as a bargaining unit anything but a democratic process?
You also argue in your response to my letter that by requiring management to go to mediation or binding arbitration if the first contract is not agreed to within 120 days put an unfair burden on management. Again, you are lacking in your facts. Management typically will drag its feet when it comes to a first contract with the hopes of breaking apart the union and reversing the vote by false promises. Additionally, here in South Carolina, the Department of Labor has a full-time mediator on staff whose job it is to mediate between employee, employer, and even the union. Mediation services are not binding arbitration or a cost of thousands of dollars. Mediation is where an independent person goes back and forth to discuss the issue and help establish an agreement.
Finally, you fail to mention in your letter just what companies are sponsoring and giving money to the anti-employee free choice act; companies such as Bank of America, who if memory serves me correctly, got $45 billion of my tax money in a bail-out. Companies such as Citigroup who received $50 billion hard-earned middle class tax dollars. Finally, let’s examine how Chairman and CEO Frank Blake advocated for the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and is now leading the charge against the Employee Free Choice Act.
Let me ask you the following: were you influenced by the fact that the Home Depot PAC gave you $6000 between 2002 and this year? Or how about the $4,650 you received in 2008 from Citigroup? Or even the $3000 you received in 2008 from Bank of America. Please, let us South Carolinians know just how much your vote for our rights costs – we would be real interested to know.
Best regards,
Nancy Seufert
Proud Member of the AFGE Local 1869
North Charleston, SC