EFCA Gets Unfair Bad Rap in Washington Times – National Consumers League

Last week, the Washington Times ran an editorial by Senator Jim DeMint, a Republican Senator from South Carolina and chairman of the Republican Steering Committee, that contained misleading criticism of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), a piece of legislation that would rightly restore the freedom of American workers to express their interest in unionizing.

NCL’s Reid Maki had a strong rebuttal for the Washington Times in a letter that ran today: “The senator portrayed EFCA as an attempt to undermine a worker’s ability to vote by secret ballot, but the truth is that corporations often use their vast economic might to undermine workers’ attempts to unionize with coercion and manipulative campaigns.”

As NCL and its labor allies know far too well, corporations often have the upper hand when it comes to the balance between workers’ interests and company policies. Unscrupulous companies are able to tip the scales in their favor by threatening to close factories, move overseas, or fire “problem” workers when the workforce shows an interest in unionizing.

It’s time for workers to regain their right to free speech, and that’s why NCL, which has a long history of supporting workers’ rights, supports the EFCA.