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AREA WOMEN URGED TO BACK EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE BILL

By Amy Riggin/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Thursday, July 2, 2009 10:53 PM CDT

In efforts to garner support for a piece of legislation touted for making it easier for workers to form unions, the Arkansas AFL-CIO is seeking support from Pine Bluff women.

Candis Collins, state director Arkansas Health Care for Amercians Now, addresses the working womens’s round table about the Free Choice Act Wednesday afternoon at the Holiday Inn Express at the Pines. Pine Bluff Commercial/Ralph Fitzgerald

At an informal meeting at the Holiday Inn Express Wednesday, about 20 women listened to Employee Free Choice Act supporters who are trying to secure votes from Arkansas’ two Democratic senators, Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor. They also are working to get a big turnout for a July 11 rally at Lincoln’s Little Rock office, said AFL-CIO spokeswoman Ayketa Iverson.

“The whole purpose of this event is to get your two senators here to say ‘yes,’” Iverson said. “As of right now, they are opposing this bill outright.”

About 500 people are expected to attend. Locally, a smaller rally will be held at the Pine Bluff Labor Temple earlier in the day.

Candis Collins, director of Arkansas chapter of Health Care for America Now (HCAN) and a retired union leader, provided background on the legislation and how labor leaders view it as a positive step for workers. The AFL-CIO spearheads the HCAN effort as well, Iverson said.

“We’ve been trying to get this message out to women,” Collins said. “Sometimes women just do a better job ... of getting up and doing something.”

Collins said Employee Free Choice will strengthen the National Labor Relations Act, which was passed in 1935 and set up the mechanism for forming unions. She said employers have “found loopholes” to dilute workers’ rights over the years.

“They break the law all the time,” Collins said. “They fire our union activists. They browbeat our folks. They separate us. And they can send people to union meetings who are anti-union.”

The legislation would allow workers to choose between a majority sign-up or election process in determining whether to form a union. The act also would strengthen penalties against companies for using coercive tactics to dissuade employees and bring in an outside arbitrator if a union agreement can’t be reached within three months.

“Companies should not be telling us when and how we should be doing our voting and how we should organize our unions,” Collins said.

Among those in attendance were 1st Ward Alderwoman Irene Holcomb and Maxine Nelson, Jefferson County chair of ACORN.

“I came today because I believe in the cause,” Holcomb said after the meeting.

Democrat Al Franken was declared the winner of a Senate seat in Minnesota on Tuesday, clearing the way for President Barack Obama’s party to secure a critical 60-seat majority in the Senate. Franken supports the legislation and AFL-CIO spokeswoman Allison Curley said she expects the bill to “move quickly” as a result.

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