This Fourth of July, there will parades, picnics, family gatherings and speeches about what it means to be an American and a patriot.
For the men and women who have served in the military, being a patriot means fighting at home to protect the freedoms they defended in conflicts abroad. And for millions of them, that means belonging to a union.
Take Brett McElfresh, a member of Plumbers and Pipefitters (UA) Local 94 in Canton, Ohio. McElfresh served four years in the U.S. Army, including a tour in Iraq. He is the first member of his local to join the Helmets to Hardhats program sponsored by by the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD). The program has helped more than 5,000 military vets find new careers as electricians, plumbers, roofers and in other skilled trades.
His experience in the military and in the union are parallel, McElfresh says.
I realized when you join the service, you serve your country. When you come back home and join a union, you go from defending your country to helping build and maintain your country.
I am absolutely proud to be a union member.
McElfresh is not alone. Some 2.1 million union members are veterans, or 14 percent of all union members. An even higher percentage of union retirees are veterans.
One thing most of them agree on is the need for the Employee Free Choice Act. Across the country, veterans are speaking out in favor of the legislation. Carolyn Consoli, a Navy veteran who spoke at an April town hall meeting in Los Angeles attended by Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, said it was hard for her and many other returning veterans to find jobs that offered the pay and benefits she needed:
The only jobs I could find were those that led to poverty wages.
One out of five veterans who recently returned from tours of duty remains unemployed. One out of four veterans finding a job since leaving the service earns less than $21,840 a year.
The veterans who testified at the town hall meeting said they were able to join the military with just a signature, without having to ask anyone’s permission. Why, then, shouldn’t they have the same chance to form a union and bargain for a better life?
Kelly Mobley agrees. After 13 years on active duty in the Army and 10 years in the Reserves, Mobley began a second career as a field rep for the Ohio Association of Public School Employees (OAPSE), an AFSCME affiliate. She followed her mother, who retired as an OAPSE official the same year her daughter joined the union.
She says all workers deserve the basic right to choose how to live their lives.
That’s why we left England and why we had the Boston Tea Party. Big Business is oppressing the workers.
Mobley says her passion for working people made the transition from the military to the union easy.
In the military, I was fighting for basic freedoms. In the union, I’m fighting for basic human rights. In the military, I was fighting in the trenches. In the union, I’m in the trenches going up against the big lawyers and school superintendents to protect—and I say this with great respect—the little people. I’m fighting for the cooks, bus drivers, custodians, the people who make the schools work.
On this Independence Day, McElfresh says we need to remember that our freedoms are precious and must be protected. That’s why the Employee Free Choice Act is so important.
We were fighting for freedom of choice [in Iraq], the right to do what you want to do, and not be forced to do something you don’t want. We should be able to make a choice [to join a union] and not be told what to do. Not passing the Employee Free Choice Act would be going against what our forefathers stood for and what the Fourth of July stands for.
Guess who’s joining the campaign for the Employee Free Choice Act in Maine?
It’s state Rep. Jim Campbell, a Republican who is defying the expectations of pundits and corporate shills by supporting workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain. He has appeared at public events around the state and written in local news outlets to show his support for the Employee Free Choice Act.
Here’s what Campbell says about the need to pass the Employee Free Choice Act and its importance to rebuilding the economy:
Common-sense solutions should be used to create good jobs that can support a family and put money back into our economy. Historically, no institution has been as effective at improving the quality of life for working families as membership in a union. Union members earn better wages, have better health care coverage and can count on a more secure retirement than nonunion workers.
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Arkansas union members rally for Employee Free Choice. |
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While Campbell joins the grassroots campaign in Maine, union members and allies across the country have been busy during this week’s congressional recess. Here are some highlights from the fight for Employee Free Choice:
- In Minnesota this week, Sen. Al Franken, who supports the Employee Free Choice Act, thanked his “brothers and sisters” in the union movement who worked hard during his campaign. He said his own union membership helped him to get health care. Congratulations again to Minnesota’s newest pro-worker senator, who will be a valuable voice in Washington.
- In Louisiana, union members, faith leaders and other supporters of the freedom to form unions are kicking off a petition drive and a new round of visits to the offices of their U.S. senators.
- Members of the Plumbers and Pipefitters (UA) in Virginia are holding working lunches to write letters to their senators supporting Employee Free Choice. Union members also are holding working lunches in Wisconsin.
- In Arkansas, union members and allies are getting ready for a major push on the Employee Free Choice Act over the next week that will include rallies and town hall meetings. They continue to deliver thousands of handwritten letters to their senators.
- In Colorado, union members are remembering the past by honoring the miners of Ludlow and looking to the future by gathering local support for the Employee Free Choice Act from workers and small business leaders.
