Organized labor seeks to facilitate forming of unions

WASHINGTON — Leaders of organized labor, claiming union support put Democrats in the majority, launched a campaign Friday to push Congress to pass legislation that would make it easier to form unions.

"Our top priority for the new Congress we've elected is to make the Employee Free Choice Act the law of the land," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney told union activists Friday.

The proposal would let workers form unions by simply signing a card or petition, impose stronger penalties on employers who violate labor laws, and allow for arbitration to settle first contract disputes.

"Ensuring workers rights to organize is a very important part of the reason we do the political work we do," said Karen Ackerman, political director of the AFL-CIO.

Labor delivered millions of votes for the Democratic Party in the 2006 midterm elections and is outlining what it wants from the Democrat-controlled Congress in return.

Hundreds of union leaders, organizers and activists gathered Friday on Capitol Hill for a chilly outdoor rally to support the bill. They heard from Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and leaders of several national unions as they shivered and waved union signs.

"Twenty thousand workers a year are fired because they tried to bring workers together to form a union," Kennedy told them. He pledged to reintroduce the bill early next year.

Before the Democrats recaptured control of Congress, the bill had more than 200 co-sponsors in the House and more than 40 Senate backers. Supporters will have to line up those votes again next year.

Even if the bill makes it through the House, it could face a filibuster in the Senate or a presidential veto.

Labor leaders feel the law could help reverse decades of declines in union membership.

"Bargaining rights have been destroyed in this country," said Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America and chairman of the AFL-CIO's organizing committee, adding that he saw a direct link between that and wage stagnation and declining health care and retirement benefits.

Union activists say the right of workers to organize in unions is widely recognized in most democracies around the world. But they say when workers in the United States try to organize, they often face aggressive campaigning by employers to prevent it.

When the AFL-CIO formed in the 1950s, one of every three private-sector workers belonged to a labor union. Now, only about 8 percent of private-sector workers are in unions.

That steady downward trend gained momentum when President Reagan was in office, labor officials say, and unions have faced many obstacles with Republicans controlling the White House and Congress in recent years.