Bringing The Battle For Free Choice To Boss HQ
Tuesday, March 10, 2009(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
Chanting “Employ free choice, without it no voice,” hundreds
of workers joined labor allies and community groups from across the country
yesterday at a spirited rally outside the US Chamber of Commerce headquarters in
downtown Washington. “This rally is about the freedom to choose,” Fredo
Serrano (l) - a registered nurse from Las Vegas - told Union City. “Without a
union, we saw our benefits being chipped away at little by little until we had
nothing left,” Serrano said, adding that the Employee Free Choice Act “is
about fairness and justice for all Americans, not just the small few at the top.
It’s time to take care of America’s future, by protecting workers and
allowing them the right to organize if they so choose.” Recent reports
indicate that major employer groups - including the Chamber of Commerce and
associations for the restaurant, hotel, manufacturing, retail and financial
industries – last year alone spent a combined $138 million on federal lobbying
to fight increases in the minimum wage and push for restrictions on family and
medical leave. - report/photo by Adam
Wright