Given a choice, workers go union

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/17107747.htm

Given a choice, workers go union
By Joseph Slater

TOLEDO - The writer is a law professor at the University of Toledo.

People across the political spectrum agree: America's middle class is being squeezed. Real wages in much of the economy are flat or declining, more family members work longer hours and health insurance and pensions are more precarious.

One cause of this is clear: declining rates of workers in unions, unions that improve wages, hours and working conditions.

This decline is not due to a lack of interest in unions. Polls show that from 40 percent to more than 50 percent of workers not in unions want to be in one. Rather, this decline is largely due to weaknesses in labor law that permit employers to use illegal and unfair coercive tactics to prevent employees from exercising their free choice.

Legislation pending in Congress would change that. Called the Employee Free Choice Act, the measure's enactment is necessary to restore the right of workers to decide freely about unionization.

Unions help workers and the middle class. Allowing workers to bargain collectively levels the playing field. Workers who belong to unions earn 30 percent more than nonunion workers. They are 62 percent more likely to have employer-provided health coverage and four times likelier to have pensions.

A recent survey by the respected pollster Peter Hart found that 53 percent of nonunion workers wanted a union, and only a little more than a third said they would vote against a union. Other studies have found similar numbers.

FULL story at link.