TimesLeader.com

COMMENTARY

January 7, 2009

Freedom to form unions benefits workers, employers COMMENTARY Deborah Bonn

AS A registered nurse at Geisinger South Wilkes-Barre hospital and a member of SEIU (Service Employees International Union) Healthcare Pennsylvania for nearly 30 years, I am troubled by the recent coverage and discussion – some of it in this newspaper – about the impact of protecting workers’ freedom to form unions.

The debate centers on the Employee Free Choice Act, legislation that will be considered by Congress this year and would provide workers, and not companies, with the choice to form a union through an election or when a majority of workers sign cards supporting the union.

Corporate interest groups and lobbyists fiercely oppose this bill, but that shouldn’t surprise anyone. Today, if workers wish to form a union by means of a straightforward majority signup they must first gain permission from their employer; otherwise they must go through a long, drawn-out National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election process that can take months. During this time, employers can – and often do – take steps to fire, harass and intimidate workers who support forming a union.

A study of union-organizing drives by two professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that between 1999 and 2004, only 20 percent of 22,000 petitions filed by workers requesting an NLRB election resulted in a collective bargaining agreement with employers and the formation of a union.

A Cornell University study of 400 NLRB certification election campaigns found that more than half of all employers made threats to close all or part of a plant or worksite during a union-organizing drive.

It’s obvious that our current system is tilted in corporate CEOs’ favor – and they’ve taken advantage of it. While we’re working harder than ever and barely making ends meet, corporate CEOs are making 344 times what the average worker makes in a year.

The Employee Free Choice Act provides a non-governmental solution that will allow workers to share in the prosperity they work so hard to produce. It simply says that when a majority of workers sign cards saying that they want to form a union, those workers aren’t subject to a lengthy and obstruction-filled process.

President-elect Barack Obama, vice president-elect Joe Biden and a bipartisan majority in Congress support this necessary piece of legislation, as do an estimated 60 percent of the American people.

Giving workers the freedom to choose to join a union also will aid a national economic recovery by helping to rebuild the middle class. Workers in unions earn 30 percent higher wages on average and are 59 percent more likely to have employer-provided health coverage. According to a new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research, being in a union is even more significant for women.

But it’s not all about economics. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the positive impact that my union has had on the quality of care for my patients. As a nurse in the city and as the director of the Nurse Alliance of Pennsylvania, I’ve had the great joy of working together with other nurses and health care workers, through our union, to improve the safety and quality of patient care by eliminating mandatory overtime, improving staffing levels and advocating for our patients at the bargaining table.

Allowing all workers to have the free choice to form a union is both important to an economic recovery and to the quality of the services they provide. Whether they are nurses, janitors, nursing home workers or child care providers, workers should have the right to make their own choices.

Employee free choice works. Where workers have been able to choose a union, we see positive results for all – for employees, for employers and for the people they serve.

Deborah Bonn is a registered nurse at Geisinger South Wilkes-Barre hospital and director of the SEIU Nurse Alliance of Pennsylvania, the commonwealth’s largest and fastest-growing union of nurses and other health care workers.