In Honor of Martin Luther King Jr.: Let’s Protect Worker’s Rights
January 18th, 2010 | Linda Meric
Martin Luther King Jr. will always be revered as one of the greatest civil rights leaders in America and the world. Most people know King died in Memphis, but did you know that he died while fighting for the right of sanitation workers to organize unions and choose their own leaders?
King called unions “the best anti-poverty program available to poor people with jobs.” He worked with leaders of all the country’s major labor unions and supported union membership all his life.
At a press conference before his assassination in 1968, King said: “It isn’t enough to integrate lunch counters. … What is the profit in being able to eat at an integrated lunch counter if one doesn’t earn enough money to even buy a hamburger and a cup of coffee?”
On this MLK Holiday, pay tribute to Dr. King’s vision of economic justice by speaking out for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.
EFCA will protect every worker’s right to form, join and assist labor unions – and bargain for a better wages, benefits and a better life. The legislation now has 225 co-sponsors but hasn’t moved in Congress because of the attention focused on health care reform. Still, now is the time to contact your members of Congress. Let them know that as soon as the health care reform legislation is passed, you expect them to turn their attention to the passage of EFCA.
Dr. King said “All labor has dignity.” Let’s restore dignity to workers by moving toward passage of the Employee Free Choice Act!
*For more on the Employee Free Choice Act visit the Workplace Fairness Employee Free Choice Act page.
About the Author: Linda Meric, a nationally-known speaker on family-friendly workplace policy, is executive director of 9to5, National Association of Working Women. A diverse, grassroots, membership-based nonprofit that helps strengthen women’s ability to win economic justice, 9to5 has staffed offices in Milwaukee, Denver, Atlanta, Los Angeles and San Jose. Women’s eNews welcomes your comments. E-mail us at editors@womensenews.org.
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Tags: EFCA, Employee Free Choice Act, Linda Meric, Martin Luther King, MLK Day, unions
January 18th, 2010 at 1:31 pm
Linda:
Unions are not neccesary and in fact many union bosses are in the hands of organized crime and exist only to feed crime bosses.
We all have the right to leave any job we want and take another one at a rate of pay we negoiate.
Unions say they protect workers. The UAW has destroyed more jobs than it protected. The pilots uinions have done their best to pay excessive wages to pilots ($200,000.00+ per year) at the expensive of the consumer. Flight attendent unions have turned what wa suppose to be a two year job for a young lady out of college looking to see the world into a life time protected job that pays well above average wages ($85,000 a year after 25 years and flying international)
for well less than average hours worked (3 days a week with one day on the beach in Hawaii or the like). Just think of the damage that teachers unions have done to k-12 education in this country, it is a real crime.
Unions inpose costs on the rest of us and make our lives poorer without really protecting workers. They just encourage employers how to find ways to eliminate union jobs (can anyone spell outsourcing).
When we are free to travel anywhere in the country, train ourselves for any job we want, work for any employer we choose, leave an employer at any time we choose,save our money for our retirement, what value is a union other than to steal from others to enrich ourselves until the golden goose dies?
Regards,
Charles
January 19th, 2010 at 5:47 pm
Linda:
The previous poster has some good points, but I disagree on some others. Unions the way they were did create excesses, much like the well-intentioned person who goes to a party and has a few drinks too many. They did go too far, but what you have today is corporations equally going too far when huge bonuses are awarded to those who ship rank and file jobs out of the country. To me the working person has lost ground and protection for the past decade with still no relief in sight. I would like to encourage all states to adopt the Model Employee Termination Act(text can be found on Google). This would at least give those employees without union contracts at least a voice when they feel they have been treated unfairly, and might even put an end such practices as one getting fired over, say, a political sign on his/her car.