Renewing the Fight for the Free Choice Act

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
"One of the most remarkable stories of this campaign season is how corporate-funded front groups tried - and failed - to use the Employee Free Choice Act as a wedge issue," reports Mary Beth Maxwell, American Rights at Work Executive Director. "They spent nearly $20 million dollars to smear candidates who would defend the right to form a union, freely and fairly. And in almost every race, those candidates beat the lies." Maxwell credits "an incredible grassroots movement for the Employee Free Choice Act" in which over 800,000 signed on to support the bill, ordinary Americans pitched in to fund TV ads to set the record straight in key states, hundreds made phone calls in support of the Employee Free Choice Act and tens of thousands reached out personally to educate friends and family. "Your actions have had a powerful effect," said Maxwell, "But now that we have a pro-worker president and a pro-worker majority in Congress, we have even more work to do. We're just beginning the long, hard fight to get this bill back onto the floor of Congress. And those anti-union front groups WILL spend millions more to stop us the closer we get to victory." Over the coming weeks and months, American Rights at Work plans to work toward the goal of one million signatures in support of EFCA, and to engage new leaders in Congress and the White House. Acknowledging that "It's going to be a lot of work to restore the middle class and make the economy work for everyone," Maxwell pledged that "We'll work hard to keep our issues front and center in the media. And we'll fight the lies and smears with everything we've got. We will build on our momentum, and we will pass this bill!"