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The Progressive

NewsWire

A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact:

Alison Omens/Eddie Vale (202) 637-5018

America's Workers Hold Over 100 Grassroots Events Across the Country Urging Congress to Pass the Employee Free Choice Act

Workers Also Came to D.C. to Tell Their Stories Directly to Their Representatives and to Testify Before the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee

WASHINGTON

Starting today, and continuing throughout the week, America's
workers will hold over 100 grassroots events across the country urging
congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, which will restore
workers' freedom to join a union and bargain for a better life.

Workers
also are coming to D.C. to tell their stories directly to their
Representatives and to testify before the U.S. Senate Health,
Education, Labor, & Pensions Committee.

Billy Mason, an
aerospace worker and former U.S. Marine from Virginia, who came to D.C.
to meet with his Representatives said, "For the last 24 years I have
worked at the same plant and watched as our good jobs turned into jobs
where we are falling behind on wages and benefits and living check to
check. Our only hope for restoring worker moral and holding business
accountable is to allow the plant workers to organize and form a
union."

Deborah Kelly, a lineman apprentice who came all the
way from Alaska to testify before the Health, Education, Labor &
Pensions Committee, said, "As a lineman apprentice for the Chugach
Electric Association I work hard every day, in sometimes dangerous
conditions, to provide power to the Anchorage, Alaska area. I am truly
honored to testify before Congress about how I have benefited from
joining a union. Thanks to my union, I work with the most highly
trained people in the industry and I know will come home safe every
night."

At the local grassroots, events workers will be writing
letters and calling their Senators, urging them to pass the Employee
Free Choice Act. There will be over 100 events across the country
including over 40 events just in Alaska, Ark., Calif., Colo., Neb.,
N.C., Maine, Mont., Pa., Va., and Wis.

Passing the Employee
Free Choice Act is crucial to building an economy that works for
everyone and to growing the middle class. It will allow workers to have
a voice at work and to bargain collectively for higher wages, benefits,
and job security. The bill would allow workers to join a union through
majority sign up and take away the right of corporations to demand a
sham ballot election, giving the choice of majority sign-up or an
election to the workers.

The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) works tirelessly to improve the lives of working people. We are the democratic, voluntary federation of 56 national and international labor unions that represent 12.5 million working men and women.