Strong Labor Policy
Obama will strengthen the ability of workers to organize unions. He will fight for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. Obama will ensure that his labor appointees support workers' rights and will work to ban the permanent replacement of striking workers. Obama will also increase the minimum wage and index it to inflation to ensure it rises every year.
- Ensure Freedom to Unionize:
Obama believes that workers should have the freedom to choose whether to join a union without harassment or intimidation from their employers. Obama cosponsored and is strong advocate for the Employee Free Choice Act, a bipartisan effort to assure that workers can exercise their right to organize. He will continue to fight for EFCA's passage and sign it into law.
- Fight Attacks on Workers' Right to Organize:
Obama has fought the Bush National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) efforts to strip workers of their right to organize. He is a cosponsor of legislation to overturn the NLRB's "Kentucky River" decisions classifying hundreds of thousands of nurses, construction, and professional workers as "supervisors" who are not protected by federal labor laws.
- Protect Striking Workers:
Obama supports the right of workers to bargain collectively and strike if necessary. He will work to ban the permanent replacement of striking workers, so workers can stand up for themselves without worrying about losing their livelihoods.
- Raise the Minimum Wage:
Barack Obama will raise the minimum wage, index it to inflation and increase the Earned Income Tax Credit to make sure that full-time workers earn a living wage that allows them to raise their families and pay for basic needs.
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Raise the minimum wage? Strengthen unions? At what cost?.....the democrats platform this election year was to punish companies who send jobs overseas (like their doing it to be mean) and to reward those who create job here with a $3000 tax credit, which will only benefit companies that pay their workers $3000 a year or less. Obama wants to raise the minimum wage, at what cost? ANY FURTHER WAGE HIKES WILL ONLY RESULT IN UNEMPLOYMENT AND MORE JOBS BEING SHIPPED OVERSEAS. Obama wants to strengthen unions......unions do more harm then good....how you ask?.....well when unions go on strike it harms workers because they aren't getting payed by the factory, it harms the consumers because for every day the union is on strike thats "x" amount of widgets not being brought to the market. Lastly it harms the business the most because in most cases factory management can't even bring in temp. workers (scabs) to produce the widgets so thats (x) amount of profit the factory is losing every day.
I'm not so sure about this stuff -- I'm not very sure about the "card check" provisions as I wouldn't want to see unions intimidating workers into joining unions against their will. Secret ballots make a lot more sense to me.
I'm okay with increasing the minimum wage and to tying it to inflation but I'm also concerned with the costs that small business will bear to support this.
I guess I just don't see a lot of barriers to joining unions in this country, and yet I do see some number of closed shops where individuals who don't want to join unions still have to pay union dues in order to work. And I see a lack of unionization efforts in other professions where for some reason unions are under-represented in the US.