Monday, March 5, 2007

Roskam again votes against everyday working men and women.

Last week the House passed the Employee Free Choice Act, which will level the playing field for middle class workers by restoring freedom to choose unions and strengthening penalties for companies that illegally coerce or intimidate employees who want to unionize. While the bill passed 241-185 with several Republicans voting for it, Roskam continued to be a rubber stamp for his party leaders.

He clearly voted against the interests of everyday working men and women - and not even the $500,000 ad campaign the Chamber of Commerce (CoC) launched in districts like his can change this fact. The CoC, and their conservative allies like Roskam, have constantly fought against raising wages and increasing safety standards in the workplace are now fightin this bill claiming they are “protecting” American workers. Rubbish! The CoC is not spending millions of dollars to “protect” American workers, rather they are trying to protect the profits they gain from access to low wages non-unionized workers earn.

The Employee Free Choice Act is needed in the first place because of the intimidation from the companies that employ every tactic available to prevent workers from forming unions. Did you know that every 23 minutes a U.S. worker is fired or retaliated against for their support of a union? Here are a few more interesting statistics:

91% of employers force employees to attend one-on-one anti-union meetings with their supervisors during union organizing drives.

51% of employers illegally coerce workers into opposing unions with bribes or special favors during union organizing drives.

30% of employers illegally fire pro-union workers during union organizing drives.

Roskam has already voted increasing the minimum wage. This is another clear example of Roskam voting against everyday, hard working residents of Il-6. We need to shine light on these vote so that every one of his constituents know how sneaky Pete is voting against the interest of hard working middle class citizens.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Believe it or not the International Union of Operating Engineers local 150 of Countryside Ill. backed this knucklehead in the last election! $2500.00 of members PAC fund money helped get him elected. The members have no say in how the money is spent in federal elections. Only the President/Business Manager makes those decisions. This is however just a drop in Lake Michigan compared to what was given by this union to other anti labor candidates in the 2006 election. Check the records, you will be amazed.

whiskey said...

I wrote a letter to Roskam asking to back the EFCA, and got a snotty response in return about protecting the integrity of the secrety ballot. I can't remember exactly, but it seems like he threw Iraq in there as well, as if to say, since we're fighting a losing war over there to protect the right to vote, we certainly can't 'give' it away here!

I called his office back on that one, and complained about the snottiness of the letter. The polite young gentleman didn't seem to get why I was upset. It should only take two or so terms, but he'll be as arrogant as the day is long before you know it.

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