Main Street

“Best Week Ever”? Not for the Chamber of Commerce

This week activists across the country are picketing and bringing attention to one of the country’s largest organizations whose mission is “To advance human progress through an economic, political and social system based on individual freedom, incentive, initiative, opportunity, and responsibility.”

Who are these activists, what is the organization being protested, and why would anyone spend time taking on such a noble-sounding organization? Like always, the devil is in the details.

The activists are part of Jobs with Justice, a national organization that advocates for workers’ rights, better working conditions, and the right to bargain collectively through union representation. Their target is the Chamber of Commerce, whose purpose is “to fight for free enterprise”.

Over the past few months a piece of legislation called the “Employee Free Choice Act” has been making its way through Congress. The Bill would do several things to put more power in the hands of workers, and dramatically shift the conditions for workers who chose to organize unions by making it harder for employers to illegally engage in anti-union activities. It doesn’t sound like that big of a deal, until you learn the shocking rates at which American companies violate these laws.

This week the fight picked up in intensity when the Chamber declared they’d turned Sen. Feinstein’s (D-CA) vote against the Bill, a statement they soon retracted and which the Senator’s office responded to by saying they were “engaging in wishful thinking”, and that the Senator was still looking for a compromise that was beneficial to workers and business interests.

The Jobs with Justice group decided to remind members of the Chamber’s anti-worker history. They point to the chambers stances against: The eight-hour workday for women, child labor laws, the Family and Medical Leave Act, The Voting Rights Act, raising Americans with Disability Act access standards, overtime payments for millions of workers through reforms of the Fair Labor Standards Act, and increases in the minimum wage as indicators that the Chamber is only interested in preserving a system in which working people get the short-end of the stick.

Jobs with Justice asked members to contact their Senators to ask them to ignore the Chamber’s lies and to support the Employee Free Choice Act. They’ve also begun mobilizing activists to turn out to local Chamber offices and educate community members about the Chamber’s true nature and agenda, which they see as anti-worker and part of the failed “free market” ideology which led us to the current financial and economic disasters.

On Tuesday JwJ held demonstrations in Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, Indianapolis, and several other cities. Jobs with Justice pledges to continue to “be there” against the chamber and will be holding demonstrations this week and next. You can read the updates here.

To make matters worse for the Chamber, this week a national group of employers, entrepreneurs, and business leaders named “Business Leaders for a Fair Economy” came out in support the Employee Free Choice Act.

One thing is for sure, the stakes are getting higher and higher on this piece of legislation. If you haven’t added your voice to the millions already supporting this Bill, you might want to take some time to figure out if the wages and benefits of union job is something you care about. There are more than 60 million workers out there who would form one if they had the chance. We’ve even heard claims that it might be good for your health.