While working on John Edwards' presidential campaign, I met working people across the country struggling just to make ends meet. For some time now, the financial hardships experienced by men and women in the heartland have been ignored or even overlooked by politicians and pundits alike in Washington. With last Friday's news that the nation's unemployment rate jumped to 5.5 percent in May, the highest monthly rise in two decades, this is no longer the case. Those inside the beltway are finally starting to come to terms and focus on this serious economic crisis.

Our economy is headed on the wrong track and taking good, hard-working people with it. Unemployment is rising through the roof, inflation and energy prices are skyrocketing, and a tragic number of Americans are losing their homes to foreclosure due to the housing and credit crisis. Now more than ever before, we need to continue our efforts to preserve America's middle class. Workers need political solutions that work for them, and they need political leaders who have strength and courage to get them through these tough times.

Bill Belichick knows the cost of breaking the rules. The coach of the New England Patriots was forced to cough up $500,000--about 12% of his annual salary--for spying on his opponents during the NFL's season opener. The league's punishment didn't stop there - the Patriots also had to pay a quarter-million dollar fine and give up at least one draft pick. Discipline was swift and severe. All in all, the punishment was the NFL's biggest ever, and it surely sent a message to every team in the league. The incident stands in stark contrast to another reported last week by the Las Vegas Sun involving Wal-Mart, the world's biggest employer.

Breaking news from the Senate: just a few moments ago, the Senate took up the Employee Free Choice Act (S.1041).  And we had incredible momentum today:  51 Senators stood up for workers’ rights!   However, 60 votes were needed to proceed on the bill at this time. (See how your Senators voted here.)

Mary Beth Maxwell, Executive Director of American Rights at Work, released the following statement after the vote:

Breaking news from the Senate: just a few moments ago, the Senate took up the Employee Free Choice Act (S.1041).  And we had incredible momentum today:  51 Senators stood up for workers’ rights!   However, 60 votes were needed to proceed on the bill at this time. (See how your Senator voted here.)

Mary Beth Maxwell, Executive Director of American Rights at Work, released the following statement after the vote:

Today's procedural maneuver by a minority of Senators shows that they can stop the debate on the Senate floor, but they can't stop our momentum. Champions of workers' rights and their allies will do everything we can to push this vehicle forward in Congress. Anti-worker interests and legislators are standing in the way of progress, but they won't prevail. It's no longer about if—it's about when we restore workers' freedom to form unions. [...]

Hard-working men and women deserve a free choice and a fair chance at forming a union. And a majority in Congress recognize that the Employee Free Choice is a vital part of restoring America's middle class.

Created with Paul's flickrSLiDR.

As thousands rallied in support of the Employee Free Choice Act in Washington, DC on June 19, 2007, supporters from across the country took a stand for workers' rights by participating in this virtual rally. Here are some highlights.

Thousands rally in support of workers' rights and the Employee Free Choice Act in Washington, DC on June 19, 2007. Check out photos from our virtual march, too.

On the morning of Tuesday, June 19, Senator Edward M. Kennedy started the debate on the Employee Free Choice Act, and it could come to a vote as early as this week.  To get up-to-the-minute coverage on the bill, visit the AFL-CIO's blog.  It's still not too late to contact your Senator and urge them to vote for this critical workers' rights legislation.

Later in the day on Tuesday, thousands of people participated in a massive rally in Washington, DC to help mobilize support for the Employee Free Choice Act, critical workers’ rights legislation that could soon come up for debate in the Senate.  It was truly inspiring - look at this slideshow of photos from the rally and see for yourself.

As action in the Senate nears, it’s time for all of us to speak out and get involved to help make the Employee Free Choice Act a reality for America’s workers.  We'll have more updates for you on the bill as we get them!

Opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act have a one-note strategy to derail reform of our broken labor law system.  The anti-union, right-wing, business lobby simply spins the same broken record of lies, over and over again. 

Track 1 is the bogus assertion: "The bill does away with secret ballot elections, and, elections without secret ballots are undemocratic." Track 2 is the counterfeit claim: "Elections for union representation are just like elections for Congress."

American Rights at Work can't turn off their cacophony, but we can expose the lies of these lip synchers.

We've created a chart that makes clear that current union elections involving secret ballots bear no resemblance to political elections.

On Monday, May 21, 2007, we hosted a Senate briefing, "A Solution to the Middle Class Squeeze: The Employee Free Choice Act," to a packed Capitol Hill audience.  American Rights at Work brought the voices of workers and experts to the Hill to share why the right to organize is essential to preserving and growing America’s middle class and why a growing number of organizations outside of the labor movement support workers' rights and the Employee Free Choice Act (S. 1041). 

At the briefing:

• Our Executive Director Mary Beth Maxwell summarized the obstacles facing workers who try to form union and said that, “it is time we stopped locking workers into a broken legal system that fails them again and again and again.”
• American Rights at Work Board Member and President and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, Wade Henderson, shared how “the right to organize… is invigorating the civil rights community.”   He explained why the Employee Free Choice Act is one of his coalition’s top priorities, and why so many advocates see this legislation as critical to rebuilding America’s middle class: “We need protections [like this] that advance our collective well being.”  
• Daniel Luevano, of Keenesburg, CO, shared his personal experience of trying to form a union without the support of the Employee Free Choice Act.   Daniel worked as an electrician for 10 years with Ries Electric, but was illegally fired after trying to form a union at his company.   Although he was eventually reinstated, the tactics used by his employer effectively scared employees from voting for the union.  With the Employee Free Choice Act, “we would have won representation and (the boss) would have been forced to bargain with us right off the bat without all the intimidation,” said Luevano.