Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) Action

You may have complained about having to jump through hoops, but have you ever actually tried it? Food AND Medicine members and Steelworkers did, outside the Federal Building in Bangor this June, to demonstrate how hard it is to form a union these days.

Though the Bangor Daily News, and TV and radio stations covered this piece of street theater, broadcasting it to tens of thousands, the intended the audience was just two: Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, who both have offices nearby. They were about to vote on a piece of labor legislation, the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), that would make achieving collective bargaining easier. 

After the performance (which used lengths of garden house to represent the firing of organizers, the hiring of union busters and forced, anti-union meetings on the job), protestors visited the offices of both senators. Though neither was there to greet them, staffers listened respectfully and promised to forward the message.

Apparently the message didn't make it through, because before the month was over, both Senators had voted against EFCA, effectively killing it for the year. But backers have vowed to bring it back next year, and especially the year after that, when it's hoped there will be an Administration and Congress friendlier to the concerns of working people.