Employee Free Choice Act

Congress is currently considering legislation, entitled the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which would make it easier for workers to form unions. We've compiled some resources which you may find helpful as you learn more about this issue.

The AFL-CIO webpage discussing EFCA

An article from atwork.org discussing an editorial in the Mercury News

Download a flyer with facts about EFCA

From the flyer linked above:

Union workers in California earn nearly 13 percent more than their non-union counterparts.

Between 2004 and 2007, unionized workers’ wages in California were $2.74 an hour higher, on average, than non-union workers with similar characteristics.

Unions even benefit non-union workers – particularly in highly unionized industries – because employers increase wages to match what unions would win in order to avoid unionization.

Unions can also help workers reap the gains from increased productivity that they deserve, but do not usually receive. From 1980 to 2007, nationwide worker productivity grew by 70.1 percent, while workers’ inflation-adjusted average wages in California increased by only 21.4 percent – meaning that workers were compensated for only 30.6 percent of their productivity gains.

If California’s workers were rewarded for 100 percent of their increases in labor productivity since 1980 – as they were during the middle part of the 20th century – average wages would be just over $30 per hour – 40.1 percent higher than the average real wage in 2007.

These losses for California workers have corresponded with declining unionization rates. From 1983 to 2007, union rates in California declined from 15.1 percent of California workers to 4.8 percent.

Increased unionization would help California workers reap the benefits they deserve from their productivity growth

If unionization rates were the same as they were in 1983 (and the current union wage premium remained constant) new union workers in California would earn an estimated $5.9 billion more in wages and salaries per year. Non-union workers also would see a benefit as their employers would be likely to raise wages to match what unions would win in order to avoid unionization.

Union employers are also significantly more likely to provide benefits to their employees. Union workers nationwide are 28.2 percent more likely to be covered by employer-provided health insurance and 53.9 percent more likely to have employer-provided pensions compared to workers with similar characteristics who were not in unions.

The Employee Free Choice Act would help California workers by boosting workers’ wages and benefits, and making it more likely that workers would benefit from their increased productivity.

EFCA would help workers who want to join a union do so by ensuring fairness in the union selection process through three main provisions: workers would have a fair and direct path to join unions through simple majority sign-up; employers who break the rules governing the unionization process would face stiffer penalties; and a first contract mediation and arbitration process would be introduced to thwart bad-faith bargaining.

Added January 24th, 2009