LETTER TO EDITOR: Unions protect workers

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It's hard to take Paul Weyrich's case against the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) seriously when he gets the facts wrong and makes the outrageous claim that workers should be alarmed by a bill that would help them join a union and likely achieve wage gains ("The Democrats' imminent agenda," Commentary, Sunday).

EFCA would not replace secret-ballot elections, as Mr. Weyrich claims. It would provide workers with the option of joining a union by signing a card so that employers cannot simply drag their feet and delay collective bargaining.

Most workers would like to join a union, but very few ever get the chance to vote. In fact, the intimidation Mr. Weyrich speaks of is the very tool used by many employers to stifle workers' efforts to lawfully organize a union in the first place. Under current law, employers have dozens of tricks up their sleeves to delay and interfere with elections. Even if the workers vote to unionize, employers can simply refuse to bargain without facing any penalty.

In this economic crisis caused by corporate greed, working Americans are in urgent need of the immediate relief that union wages can provide and not the propaganda of a shameful corporate attack on their best interests.

JAIME CONTRERAS

Director

32BJ Capital Area District

Service Employees

International Union

Washington