Historians in Support of the Employee Free Choice Act

[Michael Honey is Haley Professor of Humanities at the University of Washington Tacoma, and author of “Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King's Last Campaign.]

One hundred historians have declared their support for the Employee Free Choice Act, introduced into Congress on March 10 by Senator Tom Harkin and Rep. George Miller.

The legislation would make it easier for workers to organize unions and harder for employers to evade them. Workers could obtain a union when fifty percent sign cards authorizing a union. The law would also force employers to respond quickly and bargain in good faith or face increased fines and mandatory, binding arbitration by the National Labor Relations Board.

Why are faculty members, who are so notoriously un-organized, speaking on behalf of unions? There are many reasons, but on one level the reason is simple: democracy depends upon it, and our economy needs it.

The last great depression occurred when unions declined to almost nothing in the 1920s. Republican government cut taxes on the rich and removed many of the regulations of the Progressive era, which in turn allowed bankers and corporations to make sky-high profits. The housing and stock market boomed, and the rich got richer. That led to the crash of 1929. Because labor was not organized, it had almost no restraining influence on government, leading to a vast divide between the rich and the working class. Sound familiar?

In 1935, the Wagner Act made it easier for workers to organize, establishing the right to freedom of association and speech on the job without employer intimidation or interference. The rise of unions paved the way to the Social Security Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, and many of the government safety nets we rely upon today.

Because unions gained in strength, workers increased their wages and their buying power. When the economy came out of its stupor during the rapid industrialization of World War II, unions became widespread. The result was the rise of the largest middle class in world history.

This history favors two arguments about the need for labor law reform today. Without unions, government will not reflect the needs of the great majority of people who work for a living. Not only will democracy suffer, but wages will stagnate, people cannot afford to buy what they produce, and our economy will suffer.

Those who have jobs need to be able to advocate for themselves. Employers will not voluntarily raise wages, and government will not do very much to make that happen either. Only workers themselves can do that, but to do it, they need to be able to harness their numbers in an organized way.

Employers will say EFCA takes away the workers right to a secret ballot. It isn’t true. If thirty percent or people in a work place petition for it, they can demand a secret ballot election. The trouble is, employer strategies since the 1980s have turned elections into a nightmare of intimidation, delays, and poor results for workers.

EFCA allows that if fifty percent petition for a union, it will take effect immediately. The choice of methods belongs to workers, not to the employers, who seem perfectly capable of protecting themselves. Let’s face it: Labor laws are written to protect workers.

History shows that we are in a time where worker rights need increased protection. Unions are clearly not the answer to every problem. But for capitalism to function in a democratic manner, we need them.
For a list of signers to the historians’ petition, and for more information on the Employee Free Choice Act, see the web site (http://LAWCHA.org/tls.php).

We, the undersigned historians, support the Employee Free Choice Act and urge Congress to enact it.”

David Brody
University of California-Davis

Alice Kessler-Harris
Columbia University

Michael Honey
University of Washington, Tacoma

Joseph Hower
Georgetown University

Bethany Moreton
University of Georgia

Brian Greenburg
Monmouth University

Eileen Boris
University of California, Santa Barbara

James J. Lorence
University of Wisconsin—Marathon County

Alison Jaggar
University of Colorado, Boulder (Philosophy)

Michael C. Pierce
University of Arkansas

Charles A. Zappia
San Diego Mesa College

Susan Hirsch
Loyola University, Chicago

Thomas Dublin
SUNY Binghamton

Kevin Boyle
Ohio State University

Bruce Cohen
Worcester State College

Eric Fure-Slocum
St. Olaf College

John S. Olszowka
Mercyhurst College

Leon Fink
University of Illinois, Chicago

Harvey Schwartz
San Francisco State University

David Montgomery
Yale University

Peter Cole
Western Illinois University

Jacquelyn Dowd Hall
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Susan Levine
University of Illinois, Chicago

John L. Revitte
Michigan State University

Elliott Gorn
Brown University

Harvey Kaye
University of Wisconsin, Green Bay

Deborah Cohen
University of Missouri, St. Louis

Nancy F. Gabin
Purdue University

Robert Reutenauer
Middlesex Community College

Charles Williams
University of Washington, Tacoma

Peter Rachleff
Macalester College

Michael Denning
Yale University

Ellen Schrecker
Yeshiva University

George Hopkins
College of Charleston

Joshua B. Freeman
City University of New York

Ina Clausen
University of California

Jacob Remes
Duke University

Joseph Abel
Rice University

Matthew Basso
University of Utah

Daniel A. Graff
University of Notre Dame

Daniel Clark
Oakland University (Michigan)

Michael Kazin
Georgetown University

Roberta Gold
Fordham University

John Enyeart
Bucknell University

Alan Derickson
Pennsylvania State University

Linda K. Kerber
University of Iowa

Jennifer Klein
Yale University

Laurie Mercier
Washington State University – Vancouver

Fraser Ottanelli
University of South Florida

John P. Lloyd
Cal Poly Pomona

Leslie S. Rowland
University of Maryland, College Park

Scott Saul
University of California, Berkeley

Andrew H. Lee
New York University, Bobst Library

James N. Gregory
University of Washington

Landon Storrs
University of Houston

Theodore Steinberg
Case Western Reserve University

David Zonderman
North Carolina State University

Rachel Batch
Widener University

Alexander Keyssar
Harvard University

José A. Soler
University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth

Liesl Orenic
Dominican University (IL)

Gordon K. Mantler
Duke University

Lizabeth Cohen
Harvard University

Devra Weber
University of California, Riverside

Randi Storch
State University of New York, Cortland

Shannan W. Clark
Montclair State University

Elizabeth Shermer
University of California, Santa Barbara

Patricia Cooper
University of Kentucky

Stanford Jacoby
University of California, Los Angeles

Steven Attewell
University of California, Santa Barbara

Dolores Janiewski
Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand)

Jennifer Luff
University of California, Irvine

Dana Frank
University of California, Santa Cruz

Elizabeth Lamoree
University of California, Santa Barbara

Cassandra Engeman
University of California, Santa Barbara

Tobias Higbie
University of California, Los Angeles

Mary O. Furner
University of California, Santa Barbara

Lisa Phillips
Indiana State Universsity

Jack Epstein
Ohio University

Matthew Bewig
University of Florida

Michael Robert Bussel
University of Oregon

Roxanne Newton
Mitchell Community College (NC)

Kenneth Fones-Wolf
West Virginia University

Otto Olsen
Northern Illinois University

Melvyn Dubofsky
State University of New York, Binghamton

Robert Schaffer
Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania

Michelle Haberland
Georgia Southern University

Linda Gordon
New York University

Moon-Ho Jung
University of Washington

Jennifer E. Brooks
Auburn University

Seth Wigderson
University of Maine at Augusta

Sean Burns
University of California, Santa Cruz

Darryl Holter
University of Southern California

Beth English
Princeton University

Eric Foner, Columbia University

Robert Zieger, University of Florida

Mai Ngai, Columbia University

Charles Bergquist, University of Washington

Nelson Lichtenstein, University of California Santa Barbara

Kimberly Phillips, William and Mary

Nikhil Pal Singh, University of Washington

Michelle Nacy, University of Washington Tacoma

Grace Palladino, University of Maryland