Workers without union representation don’t get to vote on anything. Period. Right now, should workers decide to seek a measure of democracy at work through union representation, they face one huge obstacle: employer intimidation. Since the National Labor Relations Act was passed in 1935, there have been just 42 cases of proven misconduct on the part of union organizers. That’s well below one per year. In the year 2007 alone, there were 29,559 instances of management using illegal firings and other discrimination against workers seeking to unionize.

The Employee Free Choice Act, just introduced into Congress, is a life jacket for workers who want to have a voice at work to improve benefits, wages and working conditions. The current system for forming a union is unfair because it gives employers, not workers, the right to decide the method used: secret ballot election or majority signup. Most employers opt for the election, not because they like employee democracy, but because the 45-day (or longer) process allows them ample opportunity to use means both legal and illegal to influence the outcome (see above). The Employee Free Choice Act will let workers themselves choose how to unionize. They can use the election process (if 30 percent of them want to), or they can collect union authorization cards from a majority of their co-workers (majority signup) and thus skip 45-plus days of intimidation.

Contrary to the statements of corporate interests and their lobbying groups, the Employee Free Choice Act does not change how unions are formed, nor does it take away the right to a secret ballot. Secret ballot elections and majority signup are both used today. The act will simply (and justly) give the choice back to workers. It’s clear that corporate leaders do not always know what’s best for us. Look at how they’ve ruined our financial system. Workers need to have a bigger voice in the economy.

The tradition of town meetings that I grew up with in Maine taught me the value of participatory democracy. I cannot imagine tolerating a less democratic form of town government. I likewise cannot imagine why anyone who cares about democracy would tolerate a broken system that makes it possible for management to intimidate workers into silence. My praise goes out to Reps. Mike Michaud and Chellie Pingree (co-sponsors of the Employee Free Choice Act) for listening to Maine’s working people who want a voice on the job and a better life for their families.

Surry resident John H. Curtis is a letter carrier who works out of the Ellsworth Post Office.