UPDATE: Read President McEntee’s letter urging Congress to support the Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 800)

Employer intimidation and harassment are all too common in the American workplace, especially if it involves workers attempting to exercise their legal right to unionize.

Enter the Employee Free Choice Act. Accurately described by the Washington Post as “a shield against corporate bullying,” the initiative allows employees to join a union simply by signing a membership card, avoiding protracted battles with management.

This Thursday, the full House will vote on the EFCA. Now is the time to act and tell your congressperson to support workers’ freedom to form a union and bargain for a better life for their families.

Click here to send a message to your representative or, if you prefer, contact the U.S. Capitol Operator toll-free at (877) 331-1223 and ask to be connected.

The first presidential forum of the 2008 race ended just a few minutes ago.

More than 800 active and retired AFSCME members packed into the Carson City Community Center today to hear how eight Democratic presidential candidates would address the issues most on our members’ minds.

Both ABC News and C-SPAN aired the forum live on their websites (C-SPAN broadcast it live on TV, too). In case you missed it, be sure to check out both sites for re-run details.

There’s already been a lot of coverage (You can check some of it out here, here, here and here). And be sure to check the AFSCME website, for forum photos and video in the coming days!

UPDATE: Our photo gallery from the AFSCME forum is now up on Flickr.

The AFSCME Presidential Forum will be broadcast live today starting at 3:00PM Eastern (12:00PM Pacific) on C-SPAN, and it will also be streaming on the ABC News Now website and C-SPAN.org. If you’re looking for even more online coverage of today’s forum, though, you’re in luck.

Over on MyDD.com, Jonathan Singer will be blogging live from the forum, posting his rundowns of each of the candidates’ answers as well as speaking with some of them one-on-one. Read his posts on MyDD.com.

In addition to the live TV broadcasts, you can also tune into radio talk show host Taylor Marsh on BlogTalkRadio. Taylor is in Carson City and will be doing her radio show on Thursday, February 22nd at 3:00PM Eastern (12:00PM Pacific). Visit TaylorMarsh.com for more information.

We’ll continue to gather stories, blog posts and video of today’s forum on AFSCME.org — visit http://www.afscme.org/nevadaforum for the latest.

UPDATE: Jonathan is liveblogging the forum on this MyDD.com post.

Photo credit: Lisa J. Tolda/Reno Gazette-Journal

The stage is set. The candidates have arrived. And you can watch all the action in Carson City, Nevada LIVE as AFSCME hosts the first Democratic presidential forum of the 2008 campaign!

Log onto http://www.abcnewsnow.com or http://www.cspan.org at 3:00 PM Eastern (12:00 PM Pacific) to watch eight of the Democratic candidates answer the questions most on our members’ minds. C-SPAN is also broadcasting the forum live.

If you miss the live broadcasts, you’ll have plenty of opportunity to see what unfolds. More than 125 journalists from around the world have poured into Carson City to cover the event!

For a firsthand account, be sure to check out the AFSCME website for the latest updates!

The road to the White House starts tomorrow in Carson City, Nevada — and AFSCME active and retiree members are in the driver’s seat!

AFSCME will host a presidential forum tomorrow at noon Pacific (3:00 Eastern, 2:00 Central, 1:00 Mountain) with eight Democratic candidates. The forum will be moderated by ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos, who will ask these and other questions on our members’ minds:

• Will they pledge to support public service workers and the services we provide?
• What will they do to protect Social Security and ensure that every American retires in dignity?
• How will they make college more affordable for poor and middle class families?

The forum is already getting major attention across the country, including this write-up in the Washington Post. And AFSCME President Gerald McEntee wrote about the forum in his latest Huffington Post contribution.

And the best part? Even though the event is exclusively for AFSCME active and retiree members and retirees, the entire country can watch the forum live on C-SPAN and the ABC News website.

On Wednesday, AFSCME is sponsoring a Democratic Presidential Forum in Carson City, Nevada. This forum, moderated by ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos, will give eight Democratic presidential candidates the opportunity to meet with more than 700 AFSCME members to discuss the issues that affect working families.

Why Nevada? In his latest contribution to The Huffington Post, AFSCME President Gerald McEntee explains why, in 2008 presidential politics, the story of “how the West was won” will be the story of “how the West Wing was won” by the Democrats.

Every day, major U.S. corporations deny their employees the freedom to decide whether to form a union. They do so by routinely intimidating, harassing, coercing and dismissing workers who try to organize for a voice at work.

“Every 23 minutes, an American worker is fired or discriminated against for trying to join a union,” AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee said in a released statement. “There is now an entire cottage legal industry dedicated to helping businesses foil workers who try to unionize. Sadly, their business is booming.”

On Tuesday, Congress reintroduced the bipartisan Employee Free Choice Act with 231 congressional co-sponsors. The bill would strengthen penalties for union-busting and establish mediation and arbitration during first contract disputes. It would also make it easier for workers to form unions through what’s called “majority sign-up,” which would require employers to grant union recognition if a majority of workers say in writing that they want one.

Currently, if employees present an employer with union authorization cards signed by a majority of workers, the employer can demand a secret ballot election supervised by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). But under President Bush, the NLRB enables employers to intimidate, coerce and harass workers and drag out the process indefinitely.

More than half of U.S. workers—nearly 60 million nationwide—say they would join a union right now if they could. However, because the current system for forming unions is broken, only 12 percent of American workers are currently unionized.

The advantages of achieving collective bargaining rights for American workers cannot be overstated: Unionized workers earn 30 percent higher wages than non-union workers and are 62 percent more likely to have employer-sponsored health care.

“The Employee Free Choice Act will give employees the freedom to make their own choices about whether to have a union, without interference by management,” McEntee stated. “Until Congress acts, the right to join a union will exist primarily on paper.”

On Thursday, the Senate passed a minimum wage bill loaded up with more than $8.3 billion in corporate tax breaks. If their goodies for business weren’t included, Senate Republicans said they would preserve the current poverty wage of $5.15, where it has been stuck for 10 years.

“Republicans are demanding billions in corporate tax breaks in exchange for a $2 bump in the minimum wage. As they play their political games, low-income workers continue to wait for their first raise in a decade,” Gerald W. McEntee said in a released statement.

“Business doesn’t need another break; the working poor do. The American people have spoken on the minimum wage issue. Republican leaders had better start listening to them, or their lopsided November defeat is going to be a preview of what’s to come in 2008.”