Compromising on Fundamentals is Surely Surrender

In the name of "compromise" moderate Democrats in the U.S. Senate today chucked the "free choice" out of the Employee Free Choice Act abandoning a fundamental provision of the legislation important to working families.

In its original version, The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) contains three fundamental provisions deemed essential in order to level the playing field for workers wishing to form a Union and bargain collectively for better wages, benefits, and working conditions. The fundamentals are:

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

The Senate committee's compromise version of EFCA removes the ability of workers to authorize union representation by majority sign up. I find it repulsive that our supposed "friends" in the Senate have seemingly bought into the lies and contrived controversy created by Big Business over majority sign up.

We have come so very far as a movement and fought incredibly hard to make EFCA a reality. We can not nor should not surrender any one fundamental belief to a compromise based upon a lie.

Mahandas Gandhi once said, “All compromise is based on give and take, but there can be no give and take on fundamentals. Any compromise on mere fundamentals is a surrender. For it is all give and no take."