If you need a reason for Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act and grant employees the right to form unions through majority sign-up, let me refer you to the case of Green Valley Manor.  In the span of three weeks last summer, employees of this nursing home in St. Louis, Mo., attempted to form a union and were forced to stop in the face of retaliation by their employer. 

Here is a brief timeline of events:

The union later filed unfair labor practice charges against the company, putting the election on hold indefinitely.  Now nearly a year later, an administrative law judge ruled that Green Valley Manor violated the law with the above actions, and ordered it to reinstate the fired employees. 

Had the Employee Free Choice Act been the law of the land last summer, these Green Valley employees could be well on their way to improving their workplace—having won their union last August when a majority signed cards, rather than enduring more anti-union assaults in the weeks leading up to the election. 

***On a more practical note: money doesn’t exactly fall from trees to fund our efforts to educate the public about workers’ rights issues, so if you want to support the American Rights at Work Education Fund, please join us at our 2008 Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Awards Celebration on June 24.  It promises to be an entertaining and enlightening event, and you can get that nice tax deduction from the donation.