Organized Labor in New Hampshire is backing a bill before the US Congress making it easier for workers to join a union.
Democratic Representatives Paul Hodes and Carol Shea-Porter are two of more than two hundred sponsors of the Employee Free Choice Act.
NHPR Correspondent Sheryl Rich-Kern reports.
Emily Mansell used to be a nurse at Havenwood Heritage Heights in Concord, New Hampshire.
In January, Mansell was trying to organize her co-workers to join a union to improve wages and leave policies.
MansellJan12: And I contacted the local teamsters union and that was approximately on January 12th of 2007.
Seventeen days later, Mansell was fired.
Mansell-MedCart: …. The reason provided in my termination notice is for violation and insubordination. Anyone’s who has read the letter agrees it’s just outrageous.
The hospital refused to comment on the situation, saying the matter is currently under litigation.
Chris Peck is a painter for Dartmouth College, and represents the local services union (is this the name of the union??).
The union has been representing workers at Dartmouth for decades.
Peck has been trying to get a contract for a new labor unit at the college-owned Hanover Inn.
The negotiations, he says, should have been routine.
PeckNewContract: We had to have an election, which dragged the process on. We are still in negotiations three years after the election. This new bill we feel would help the whole process.
The new bill Peck is talking about is the Employee Free Choice Act currently working it way through the US House of Representatives.
The bill simplifies the process labor activists must go through to get union rerepresentation.
Currently, organizers have to get enough workers to sign cards saying they are interested in joining a union.
When that's done, the National Labor Relations Board then holds an election at the workplace.
The majority wins.
Mark MacKenzie, New Hampshire AFL-CIO president, explains that the House Bill puts that organizing effort on the fast track.
MacKenzie2: When the majority of the workers sign the cards, the employer will be compelled to recognize them after a verification process.
Under the current system, says MacKenzie, there's a lag time between card signing and the final election…a lag that can often last months
And during that time, MacKenzie complains, companies often intimidate their workers to keep them from voting for the union.
Second District Democrat Paul Hodes is one of the 230 co-sponsors of the bill.
He says current law doesn't do enough to help the working middle class.
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What's more, says Hodes, the bill levels the playing field for unions and would make the law more fair.
Clearly this bill is an attempt to rescue a much diminished labor movement.
Organized labor's membership rates have plummeted since its heyday 50 years ago.
But that's not the law's fault says the National Association of Manufacturers, or NAM
And The organization calls the proposed legislation anything but fair to employees.
In fact NAM's Jason Straczewski (stra-chess-kee) says the bill is anti-democratic.
NAMSecretBallot: What it boils down to, it will take away the rights of workers, and employees everywhere, and their access to a private, secret ballot election when determining whether or not they prefer union membership over non-union membership.
And he adds there's no reason to fix a system that's not broken.
NAMSystem: If workers want to unionize, we’re not saying they can’t. They can organize themselves; they can organize with a labor union. They can petition the NLRB to have an election process.
And if a company interferes, says Straczewski, the National Labor Relations Board will settle the claim.
Representative Hodes expects House bill 800 to reach the floor in March -- and with 230 co-sponsors, it's likely to pass.
But its fate in the Senate is not certain.
And then there’s the bigger hurdle.
Vice President Dick Cheney has told the National Association of Manufacturers that President Bush would veto the legislation.
For NHPR News in Nashua, I’m Sheryl Rich-Kern.
