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SEIU Head Andy Stern Knows How to Restore America's Middle Class
When you're talking about the rights of workers and the urgent need to help them unionize, there's no better person to talk to than SEIU President Andy Stern. On yesterday's Meet the Bloggers, Stern was our special guest to discuss the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), a vital piece of legislation that, if passed, will go a long way toward restoring the middle class in our country. EFCA would enable workers to unionize, allowing them to demand fairer wages and much needed benefits like health insurance.
EFCA would bring balance to the work place. As Michael Whitney of American Rights at Work indicated during the show, this bill would effectively reduce the colossal disparity between Fortune 500 CEOs making an average of $6,153 an hour and the majority of workers earning an hourly federal minimum wage of $6.55. What's more, EFCA would give workers a voice when it comes to negotiating jobs and contracts, which, as JackandJillPolitics.com blogger Baratunde Thurston pointed out, is especially important for minority workers. And with mega employers like Wal-Mart resorting to unionbusting tactics and electioneering in order to prevent their employees from supporting pro-union candidates, the time to support EFCA is critical.
That's why we dedicated our entire show to this issue, and that's why we partnered with American Rights at Work to create a new video called Your New Job, as well as a petition to help EFCA pass. Get this video and the petition to everyone you know who cares about fairness and wants to help restore the middle class in America. And get it to them now!
Meet the Bloggers airs live every Friday at 1pm ET/10 am PT. And if you missed any previous shows, you can always catch them here.
Tagged as: walmart, economy, unions, seiu, civil liberties, ceos, workers rights, working class, employee free choice act, brave new foundation, efca, andy stern, recession, robert greenwald, baratunde thurston, cenk uygur, meet the bloggers, pensions, american rights at work, michael whitney, "class, war", jack and jill politics
Robert Greenwald is the director/producer of "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price" and "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism."
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