While many businesses and corporations are busy waging anti-EFCA campaigns, it is important to recognize the businesses that are standing up for workers rights and supporting EFCA.  Over the last few weeks I’ve spent time talking with business owners that are featured in the Shop with a Conscience Consumer Guide about whether or not they support the Employee Free Choice Act. Many of them are not buying into the Big Business rhetoric, and are standing firmly in support of the Employee Free Choice Act.  Business leaders from many companies have all signed on to support the Employee Free Choice Act.  Even more inspiring, these business owners are not supporting EFCA just because they believe in the right to organize, they’re signing on because they’ve seen the positive results of running a unionized business. 

All of the businesses listed below supply clothing or other goods made by unionized workers, and they understand how important it is for workers to have a voice in the workplace.  Please do check them out because they have some pretty nifty products on sale.

• Ethix Ventures
• Fair Trade Sports
• Maggie’s Organics
• No Sweat Apparel
• Unionmaid Screen Printing
• Autonomie Project
• Donnelly Colt
• Handcrafting Justice
• Justice Clothing
• Working World
• Art Flags

Many businesses, however, are not buying the arguments of organizations such as the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace which suggests that the bill would “drive up labor costs for employers, especially small businesses, at a time when they can least afford it.”  In fact, many people have found the exact opposite to be true.  Unionizing does not hurt small businesses. In times of economic crisis, unions play a crucial role in rebuilding the economy, which benefits all businesses.  Forty of America’s leading economists jointly concluded that, “The Employee Free Choice Act is not a panacea, but it would restore some balance to our labor markets. As economists, we believe that this is a critically important step in rebuilding our economy and strengthening our democracy by enhancing the voice of working people in the workplace.”

Mitch Cahn, from Unionwear, makes another great point about why businesses should support EFCA. Mr. Cahn points out that the battle over the Employee Free Choice Act can really be boiled down to health care, because the main difference between a union shop and non-union shop is that the union shop provides employees with health insurance. Many employers are afraid of EFCA making it easier to form unions because they think it’s too expensive to pay for health care benefits.  And that’s true, health care coverage may be expensive, but Mr. Cahn points out that “unions have quietly become very adept at negotiating fantastic deals on health insurance.”  So good, in fact, that the plan he pays for his workers costs about half of what non union shops pay. Supporting EFCA and creating a larger number of unionized work places would really benefit everyone.  Non union businesses that already pay health insurance for employees will benefit because as unions begin to form and negotiate health care contracts, health care costs for their employees will decrease.  And unionized businesses will benefit because they are already one step ahead in the competition against non union businesses. 

Finally, if you are an employer that doesn’t offer health care, it’s in your best interest to start.  As more unions form and an increasing number of employers offer health care coverage, nobody (except those who couldn’t get jobs at the union shops) will want to work for an employer who doesn’t offer health care benefits.  “So the last companies to offer health insurance or allow unions,” says Cahn, “will end up with their reward: the least desirable workers and the most expensive health care.”