Over 200 union members, supporters and families rallied outside the Hyatt hotel in Jacksonville, Florida on the scorching hot afternoon of May 17th to protest union busting and demand that Congress pass the Employee Free Choice Act (a law which would make unionization much easier and safer for workers). Inside the hotel, an employer association called the Council for a Union Free Environment (CUE) was beginning one of its bi-annual conferences on how to resist unionization and manipulate the National Labor Relations Act.
The CUE was formed in 1977, in order to “meet the need for a single-purpose organization dedicated to assisting companies desiring to remain union-free…” As their website boasts, “CUE has just under 300 member companies, both union and union-free, representing a cross-section of business and industry, from small firms to Fortune 500 companies.” This conference was specifically focused on the Employee Free Choice Act, actually bearing the slogan “Change is here. Are you ready?”
The featured speakers and the names of the workshops at the conference speak for themselves: Randy Johnson, the Vice President of the US Chamber of Commerce (who formulates Chamber strategy in opposition to “union-driven initiatives such as card check legislation, ergonomics, and blacklisting regulations.” Tom Lavalle, human resources manager for General Electric, gave a presentation entitled “Downsizing with Dignity and Respect.” As well, various management side law firms were represented, (such as Frost, Brown and Todd, which represents UPS, AK Steel, GE, and Chase Bank in their labor disputes) even hosting their own open forum.
Outside, members of dozens of local unions marched and chanted “Union Busting is Disgusting.” When one of the CUE conference attendees came outside to taunt the crowd, Dustin Ponder, a restaurant worker from Gainesville, grabbed the bullhorn and testified about how just the day before he had been fired for organizing at his job (along with 3 of his coworkers). “Have you ever worked a day in your life and walked in our shoes? These are people’s sons and daughters being fired just for asking for enough to live,” Ponder said.
Participating unions included but were not limited to the IBEW, Teamsters, AFSCME, OPEIU, IWW (to which the Gainesville ROC is affiliated), Boilermakers, Plumbers, ATU, ILA, Teachers, Sheet Metal Workers, Machinists, and the Actors Guild. As well, local members of the NAACP, the National Organization for Women, the Florida Labor Party and the Democratic Party came out to show their support.
This broad based mobilization for the passage of EFCA is what is needed, and what has been lacking in the labor movement’s approach to winning the legislation, especially now considering the official pronouncement by leading Democrats that “card check is dead,” stripping the bill of one of its most important components. Rather than lobbying in Congress, which has proven itself time and again as the sure way for workers to lose, Labor should rely on its members’ dedication and their massive numbers to mobilize publicly for the passage of the bill.