Giving working people the freedom to form unions and bargain collectively is key to turning around the economy and rebuilding America’s middle class. Union members are 52 percent more likely to have job-provided health care, nearly three times more likely to have guaranteed pensions and earn 28 percent more than nonunion workers. No matter what else we do to turn around America’s economy and rebuild the middle class, we will not have broadly shared prosperity until we restore workers’ free choice to bargain with their companies for a better life—without corporate intimidation. The Employee Free Choice Act will do that.

America’s workers want to form unions. Research shows nearly 60 million would form a union tomorrow if given the chance.

Too few workers are able to form unions and bargain because companies routinely block their efforts—and our current legal system is too broken and dominated by corporations to help them. A worker in an organizing campaign has a one in five chance of being fired for union activity.

CEOs wouldn’t work a day without contracts to protect their outrageous pay and perks. But they routinely deny workers the same opportunity. Although U.S. and international laws are supposed to protect workers’ freedom to belong to unions and bargain, employees are on an uneven playing field from the first moment they begin exploring whether they want to form a union, and the will of the majority often is crushed by brutal management tactics.

The Employee Free Choice Act would allow workers, not corporations, to choose whether and how they want to form a union. It would give workers a fair chance to form unions to improve their lives by:

• Guaranteeing that if a majority of workers wants a union, they can have one, allowing them to form unions by signing cards authorizing union representation;
  
  
• Providing mediation and arbitration for first contract disputes; and
  
  
• Establishing stronger penalties for violation of employee rights when workers seek to form a union and during first contract negotiations.
  

The Employee Free Choice Act has widespread support, including bipartisan backing in Congress and President Obama’s pledge to sign it into law. Nearly three-quarters of the public—73 percent—support the Employee Free Choice Act. Hundreds of respected religious, academic and business people and organizations have signed on in support.

Corporate front groups have mounted a massive campaign to block the Employee Free Choice Act. As former Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott has said, “We like driving the car and we’re not going to give the steering wheel to anybody but us.” The core of their campaign is lies and distortions about the Employee Free Choice Act—especially the lie that it takes away “secret ballot” elections. In fact, the act would let workers choose whether to decide on a union through majority sign-up or an election.

Majority sign-up is a long-established way to form a union, dating back to the passage of the National Labor Relations Act. It is used today by major employers, such as AT&T and Harley-Davidson, as an important part of their successful high-road business plans.