HM 921

1
House Memorial
2A memorial to the Congress of the United States, urging
3Congress to support the Employee Free Choice Act.
4
5     WHEREAS, in 1935, the United States established by law that
6workers must be free to form unions, and
7     WHEREAS, the freedom to form or join a union is
8internationally recognized as a fundamental human right by the
91948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and
10     WHEREAS, the freedom to choose to join with others and
11bargain for better wages and benefits is essential to economic
12opportunity and an improved standard of living, and
13     WHEREAS, unions benefit communities by strengthening
14standards of living, stabilizing the tax base, promoting equal
15treatment, and enhancing civic participation, and
16     WHEREAS, in states where more people are union members,
17schools are of higher quality and workers receive better wages
18and benefits, and
19     WHEREAS, union workers earn 29 percent more, are 35 percent
20more likely to have access to health insurance, and are four
21times more likely to have access to a guaranteed defined-benefit
22pension than workers without a union, and
23     WHEREAS, unions help raise workers' pay and narrow the
24income gap for minorities and women by increasing median weekly
25earnings of women workers by 31 percent, African-American
26workers by 31 percent, Latino workers by 50 percent, and Asian-
27American workers by 9 percent, and
28     WHEREAS, workers have often been denied the freedom to form
29unions and bargain for a better life, with 25 percent of the
30nation's private-sector employers having illegally fired at
31least one worker for union activity during an organizing
32campaign, and
33     WHEREAS, 77 percent of the public believes that it is
34important to have strong laws protecting the freedom of workers
35to make their own decision about having a union, and 58 percent
36of workers would join a union if given the option, and
37     WHEREAS, employers often do not bargain fairly with workers
38after a union is formed, and in 45 percent of these cases,
39first-contract bargaining with the union has dragged out for up
40to 2 years, and
41     WHEREAS, when the right of workers to form a union is
42violated, wages fall, income gaps related to race and gender
43widen, discrimination in the workplace increases, and job-safety
44standards weaken, and
45     WHEREAS, 78 percent of employers have required that
46employees attend anti-union meetings, and
47     WHEREAS, each year millions of dollars are spent to
48frustrate workers' efforts to form unions, and most violations
49of workers' freedom to choose a union occur behind closed doors,
50and
51     WHEREAS, a worker's fundamental right to choose a union
52free from coercion and intimidation is a public issue requiring
53a public policy solution, including legislative remedies, and
54     WHEREAS, the Employee Free Choice Act has been introduced
55in the United States Congress in order to restore the freedom of
56workers to join unions and safeguard the ability of workers to
57protect their rights, NOW, THEREFORE,
58
59Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
60
61     That the Congress of the United States is urged to enact
62the Employee Free Choice Act, which contains provisions allowing
63employees to form unions by signing cards authorizing union
64representation, establishes stronger penalties for violation of
65employee rights when workers seek to form a union and during
66first-contract negotiations, and provides for mediation and
67arbitration of first-contract disputes.
68     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
69dispatched to the President of the United States, to the
70President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the
71United States House of Representatives, and to each member of
72the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.


CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.