Web Letters: Can Labor Revive the American Dream?

This eye-opening article brought to my attention the widespread heavy- handed thuggery practiced by employers. However, simply focussing on the passage of the EFCA is shortsighted and uninspiring. The core principal of the EFCA, allowing employees to simply sign a petition to express their choice, should be extended to the practice of national elections. Just as workplace campaigns oppress and frustrate the popular will of employees, our current electoral system is rigged by fat cats and big business to impede the universal desires of people. We've seen the great work of ACORN scrutinized and belittled by opponents who obviously are trying to discourage turnout of the working class. By implementing simple petitioning in districts for local and national office we can remove impediments such as registration, ID cards and long lines that disproportionately affect minorities, illegal immigrants and the poor. Why force people to jump through such hoops when a clear majority of people want universal healthcare? A simple collection of signatures can adequately express the popular will in the general public as well as within the workplace.

If the EFCA is difficult to pass, a reworking of the minimum wage could achieve just as much. While unionization could have easily achieved a $20 wage for Ohioans such as Bill Lawhorn, a national increase of the minimum wage to $20 (or higher) would have the same effect, albeit with more broad-based benefits to all. If the EFCA can put more purchasing power in the hands of workers, Congress can help it along by setting wages for everyone at a respectable level.

Mitchel Kotula Jr.

Charlotte, NC

I am one of the 86,000 workers fired over the past eight years for demanding my right to free association. I am a registered nurse that was employeed with an HCA hospital in Hermitage, Tennessee, until they became aware of my association with the NNOC and advocacy arm of the CNA (a California nurses union).

I became a member of the NNOC after failed attempts to deal with real safety issues at the hospital where I worked. Issues included unsafe staffing, unsafe floating of nurses to areas where they were not trained to work and, the final straw, a nurse that worked over twenty-four hours straight in the intensive care unit. There were no money issues that brought me to seek the assistance of the NNOC, despite that all antiunion loudmouths would have everyone believe that all unions are only interested in monetary gain.

I was, as stated in the article, forced to attend meetings to enlighten me to the ills of unions, I received mailings at my homes with antiunion propaganda, I was forced to attend meetings with the hospital attorney, where I was informed that I could not associate with any union. They were able to take this step because I was performing the duties of a charge nurse, and due to the Kentucky River and Oakwood decisions I would now be considered a manager.

I've posted online the full story of my ordeal with HCA and the lack of protection from the NLRB.

I hope that not only does the Employee Free Choice Act pass and restore some justice and fairness to the process but I would like to see the Respect Act passed alongside it to give the right to organize back to the millions that have been wrongly labeled "manager" and exluded.

Michael Chapman

Old Hickory, TN

Bush's period ended with crisis and chaos. It brought the gas dilemma; the economy is a debacle! No jobs, more crime and less stability for everyone. The future can be saved by Obama’s good leadership. But I have a fear that the presidency can change a person! Can Barack Obama keep on his promises and words? I really, truly hope so!

Abeer Khan

Palm Beach Gardens, FL

Opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act are circulating an e-mail that refers to it as the "Free Choice Act" and states unequivocally that if it is passed, all Catholic hospitals will be forced to perform abortions and that this act will lead to 100,000 additional abortions annually, among other things. In bold type at the bottom of the email is this quote: " 'The first thing I'd do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That's the first thing that I'd do.'-- Senator Barack Obama, speaking to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, July 17, 2007"

Evidently they couldn't con enough people into believing that their right to a secret ballot would be taken away, so now they're claiming that this is an abortion bill--clinging to the only wedge issue that will still give them some traction!

Susanna E. Patterson

Stillwater, MN

These people are vicious sociopaths, and you can't give them an inch! They are also idiots who don' t understand that the ordinary workers are the market that consumes their products. Low wages equals a reduced market. Outsourcing jobs for cheap labor means you are destroying the market for your products. They do not have a clue about driving this car!

Pervis James Casey

Riverside, CA