In our current economic climate, the American public is hungry for measures to strengthen the middle class. That’s why we’re unveiling a brand new ad that shows exactly why we need the Employee Free Choice Act.
Our nationwide television ad campaign serves as a reminder that we need the Employee Free Choice Act to level the playing field for America’s workers by giving them a fair and direct path to form unions. By restoring the freedom to form unions, the Employee Free Choice Act will help America’s workers get better health care, job security, and benefits.
Now that this historic election is over, we have an unprecedented opportunity to restore our struggling middle class with good, union jobs. President-elect Barack Obama is ready to lead the charge:
I've fought to pass the Employee Free Choice Act in the Senate. And I will make it the law of the land when I'm President of the United States of America.
- President-elect Barack Obama, 4/2/08.
This bill has been before Congress in the past, but with a new Congress and support from Barack Obama, 2009 represents our best chance in years to advance this legislation. Our lawmakers are setting their agenda as we speak – they need to hear from you.
Watch President-elect Obama talk about the Employee Free Choice Act, then sign the petition in support of the bill.
America’s workers won on election night. Despite an extraordinary $20 million spent in nine battleground states to defeat candidates who support the Employee Free Choice Act, voters soundly rejected this misleading anti-union campaign from corporate interests and overwhelmingly backed candidates who support working families.
Throughout this historic campaign season, the economy has been the most dominant issue on the minds of American voters. But as the middle class bore the burden of this struggling economy, corporate interest groups have vigorously fought to mislead the public on the Employee Free Choice Act – a reasonable legislative proposal that would help restore balance in this economy by making it easier for workers to form unions.
No matter how hard corporate interests tried to dupe the voters, it just didn’t work. State by state, millions were spent, but the fact remains the Employee Free Choice Act never became the wedge issue corporate interests sought. In fact, not only did the opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act fail to affect these races, often those candidates supporting the bill steadily rose in the polls despite massive advertising on the issue.
Yesterday was an historic day. Corporate-funded front groups tried – and failed – to use the Employee Free Choice Act as a wedge issue in this election. They spent nearly $20 million dollars to smear candidates who would defend the right to form a union, freely and fairly. And in almost every race, those candidates beat the lies.
These anti-union groups thought they could scare Americans into voting for candidates who would look out for CEOs while leaving the middle class holding the bag. Even Wal-Mart thought it could bully employees into voting against pro-worker candidates. We proved them wrong.
This week American Rights at Work teamed up with Brave New Films to
present a
funny new video about an out-of-whack workplace, part of our campaign
to get 1 million people to support the Employee Free Choice Act.
Already more than 25,000 people have seen the funny new video,
"Your New Job," and we're just getting started.
Today at 1pm EST, the new live online show "Meet the Bloggers" will
discuss the Employee Free Choice Act and how it will help get our
economy back on track. Tune in this afternoon to watch Andy Stern of
SEIU and John Sweeney of the AFL-CIO talk about the bill, and stick
around for a segment featuring bloggers Baratunde Thurston and Michael
Whitney.
Let's face it. Something's wrong when CEOs rake in hundreds of times what their employees earn, and workers get the boot just for talking about unions. It could almost be a bad joke if it weren't such a serious problem.
That's why we teamed up with the award-winning producers at Brave New Films to make this video about a workplace where employees work without benefits, pay is based on favoritism, and the CEO is the only one with a contract.
This Labor Day, American Rights at Work is launching a new national cable television ad campaign featuring two commercials, "Fabric of America" and "We Don't Ask," that make the case for the Employee Free Choice Act. The ads, which will begin running nationally on Monday, September 7, are part of the sustained campaign from a broad coalition of labor and workers’ rights advocates urging lawmakers to enact this critical piece of legislation.
Today American Rights at Work launched a national television ad campaign to educate the public on the critical issues facing America's struggling middle class. The ads will build on the broad public support for the Employee Free Choice Act, a bipartisan bill in Congress that will help workers achieve the American Dream by giving them the freedom to choose a union.
We're releasing these ads in celebration of Labor Day as part of a huge, new coordinated effort among workers' rights advocates, progressives, and labor unions to champion this legislation, which passed the House last year and garnered majority support in the Senate.
Yesterday marked the start of the Democratic National Convention, but our campaign for the Employee Free Choice Act kicked into high gear over the weekend with the rollout of ads to broaden support for the Employee Free Choice Act.
Included in this kickoff are two prominentbillboards in Denver, full page ads in Politico and USA Today, and expansive online advertising. This is a preview of a larger campaign to make the Employee Free Choice Act a reality for workers struggling in this economy, with plans to run until the bill is passed.
Check out one of our billboards up in Denver:
American Rights at Work is releasing these ads in advance of Labor Day as part of a huge, new coordinated effort among workers’ rights advocates, progressives, and labor unions to champion this legislation. These ads help kickoff a new campaign and coordinated push for passage of this critical legislation.
Overall,
68% of middle-class adults would have liked their representative in the U.S.
House to vote for the bill.
Specifically, 80% of Democrats, 60% of Republicans, and 59% of
Independents polled were in favor of their representatives voting for the bill.
"This
new poll reinforces that a clear majority of Americans - be they Democrats,
Independents, or Republicans - want policies like the Employee Free Choice Act
that will help working families struggling in this economy. [...] Momentum for the Employee Free Choice Act is
real and while anti-union corporations and their front groups are spending
millions to mislead the public, Americans aren't buying it."
It shouldn't be any mystery why the middle class supports the Employee Free
Choice Act. The bill would help level the playing field to give
workers the freedom to choose to join a union, so they can earn better wages
and benefits and have greater opportunity towards achieving the American Dream.
A growing, bipartisan coalition of policymakers supports the Employee
Free Choice Act, federal legislation that would ensure workers have a
free choice and a fair chance to form a union.
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