After its resounding victory in the House, the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) is now heading for the Senate. The bill should be introduced by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) in the next few days as more members of Congress line up to co-sponsor this initiative for workers’ freedom to create and join unions.

The law’s passage is the very best way to protect workers from employers who routinely harass, fire or intimidate employees who want to form a union. Plus, union members typically earn 30 percent more than nonunion workers. They are also more likely to receive health coverage, disability insurance and a secure pension. All of that means that passing the law isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do when it comes to strengthening the middle class and adding economic security to our nation.

Now is the time for you to contact your U.S. Senators and urge them to support the EFCA. By doing so, you will be helping the nearly 60 million American workers who have said they would join a union – if they could.

Contact your Senators now.

Graduate students who work for their universities are also employees deserving better working conditions and pay. At least that’s what a group of student workers and union organizers at UCLA decided as they join forces to form a union with AFSCME Local 3299. Stressing the importance of having a voice at work, they recently attended a meeting of the Associated Students UCLA Board of Directors to state their case.

“We want to organize with AFSCME because currently there really is no voice for student workers,” Megan Markoff, a third-year political science student told UCLA’s The Daily Bruin.

People attend college to acquire the skills that will help them become better professionals and advance themselves in the world. As student/workers who provide valuable services to UCLA they should be treated with the same dignity they expect to receive after graduation.

An article in The Washington Post called it “a shield against corporate bullying”; a column in The Los Angeles Times said it “would restore balance to a system that is driven by aggressive employers, anti-union consultants, coercion and fear”; and The New York Times gave it its unqualified support. What additional proof does anyone who opposes the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) need in order for them to see that passage of the law would create a fair and effective way for workers to decide if they want to join a union?

How about 800 nurses joining AFSCME through majority signup, precisely the EFCA’s major provision — one that would give employees a voice on the job and allow them to bargain for a better life? On March 2, one day after the EFCA was passed by a vote of 241-185 in the U.S. House of Representatives, nurses at Kaiser Permanente’s Southern California facilities became the newest members of United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP/NUHHCE).

How did they do it? They simply indicated their intent to join the union by signing authorization cards. The signatures were checked by a neutral third party and Kaiser Permanente then honored the nurses’ choice.

According to UNAC/UHCP Pres. and IVP Kathy Sackman, “Respecting workers’ desire to have a voice on the job – rather than fighting the union – is not only the right thing to do, but it makes good business sense.”

Workers can choose a voice on the job without facing hostility and intimidation. The only way to make this the rule instead of the exception is by making sure Congress passes the EFCA.

The State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) turns 10 years old this year, and that is a cause for celebration. Created to help provide health insurance for children whose parents made too much to qualify for Medicaid, yet who could not afford to purchase coverage for their family, SCHIP is undoubtedly one of the most successful Congressional initiatives of the past decade.

By matching federal money with state funds, the program has allowed many states to expand coverage initiatives for struggling working families that they would not have been able to pursue without SCHIP. The program has resulted in a 30% decline nationwide in the number of low-income children without health insurance. Because of its success, SCHIP merits strong bipartisan support in Congress.

But not everyone is singing “Happy Birthday” to SCHIP. George W. Bush has announced his intention to cut funding for this important program in his latest budget.

To maintain coverage for the kids currently enrolled in the program, SCHIP needs $15 billion, and it would cost $60 billion to expand coverage to all kids nationwide who are eligible for the program. But Bush only proposes a paltry $5 billion in his latest budget.

He has said he wants to return the program to its “original objective” of covering families who are nearer the poverty limit. But by expanding the income eligibility of their SCHIP plans, states have acknowledged that working families are hit especially hard, particularly in states with high costs of living.

The need for coverage assistance in higher income brackets also underscores the tremendous erosion in employer-sponsored health insurance over the past several years. In 2000, when George W. Bush was elected president, 69% of non-elderly people in the U.S. had employer-sponsored health coverage. Today, that figure has dropped to only 60%.

The Administration that declares “No Child Left Behind” as its slogan should put its money where its mouth is regarding SCHIP. Children without health coverage are more likely to suffer long-term effects of treatable illnesses. This impacts their performance in school and ability to become productive members of society.

If George W. Bush were truly concerned about our future national strength and security, he would fund children’s healthcare coverage today.

Call your Senators and Representative toll-free at 1-800-828-0498, and tell them you want them to fully fund children’s healthcare through SCHIP.

For more information on the plight of uninsured kids and the fight for SCHIP funding, go to http://www.childrenshealthcampaign.org.

It’s no mystery that public employees are regularly targeted by hired guns hell-bent on portraying a negative image of these hard working Americans and the jobs they perform. AFSCME Council 4 in Connecticut has produced a television commercial designed to dispel those notions and send a clear message that public employees are “Proud to Serve You.”

“Proponents of privatization may paint a negative picture of public service workers, but the fact is that the people we represent are hard working, dedicated and efficient. This commercial reflects that spirit,” Council 4 Executive Director Sal Luciano told The Herald of New Britain, Conn.

On Feb. 21, 2007, AFSCME organized a historic event as eight Democratic presidential candidates convened in Carson City, Nevada to discuss their views on issues affecting working families. The nationally-televised forum was attended by more than 800 AFSCME members and retirees and viewed by millions at home, garnering overwhelming news coverage from national media.

Now you can relive this first-of-a-kind event on video and check what the candidates had to say on issues of pivotal importance to you and AFSCME members. You can also read the full transcript of the forum and visit a photo gallery to recapture the excitement of what AFSCME Pres. Gerald W. McEntee described as “the first step in taking back this country for the people who built this country and make it work every single day.”

For the past four years, Resurrection Health Care, one of the largest non-profit health care systems in Illinois, has systematically denied the rights of its employees to have a voice at work. It’s time for management to hear them loud and clear.

Despite its original mission of providing quality care, in recent years RHC has increasingly been run like a business, slashing budgets for patient care while increasing executive compensation. This is why the system’s nearly 8,000 employees, including 2,000 nurses, are not only fighting for themselves but also for the dignity of working families nationwide.

In order to drive the message home once and for all, AFSCME and Sen. Barack Obama will join forces in Chicago on Saturday, March 3 to support RHC workers’ fight for dignity. The rally will bring together labor, political, religious and community leaders including AFSCME International Pres. Gerald McEntee, AFL-CIO Pres. John Sweeney and Sen. Obama.

Be there on Saturday and come together for justice at Resurrection. For tickets, e-mail obamarally@afscmeillinois.org.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi stood up for working families today by marshaling decisive support for critical legislation to guarantee workers the freedom to join unions free of employer interference.

The Employee Free Choice Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday by a vote of 241-185 after Speaker Pelosi made it one of her priority legislative agenda items.

Under current labor law, employers often use a combination of legal and illegal methods to silence employees who attempt to form unions and bargain for better wages and working conditions. When faced with organizing drives, 25 percent of employers fire at least one pro-union worker; 51 percent threaten to close a worksite if the union prevails; and 91 percent force employees to attend anti-union meetings with their supervisors.

The Employee Free Choice Act would level the playing field by strengthening penalties against offending employers; requiring mediation and arbitration to help employers and employees reach a first contract in a reasonable period of time; and permitting workers to form a union through “majority sign-up,” where workers sign authorization cards as demonstration of their choice to belong to a union. (Majority sign-up makes a critical difference in the lives of real AFSCME members. To read about one such example, click here.)

While the Employee Free Choice Act passed the House convincingly, the margin was not wide enough to sustain a presidential veto. Predictably, the Bush administration immediately promised to veto the Act should it pass the Senate.

In a statement, AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee said, “It is unconscionable that President Bush plans to veto the freedom of working people to join together for a voice at work. Without a legislative remedy, federally sanctioned worker harassment will continue to be the unwritten law of our land.”

McEntee noted that Bush’s promised torpedo-ing of the Employee Free Choice Act was his second-anti-worker veto threat of the week!

“Earlier this week, we learned he even plans to veto anti-terrorism legislation if Congress includes collective bargaining protections for airline screeners,” McEntee stated. “President Bush has never met a workplace protection he did not wish to veto.”