May 1, 2007

More than 100,000 Minnesotans would receive health insurance and more than 88,000 would get employer-provided pensions if Congress passes the Employee Free Choice Act, a new study concludes.

Nationwide, more than 3.5 million people will get health insurance and 2.7 million will receive pension benefits, according to the report released Monday by the Institute for America's Future.

The study underscores the importance of the fight in the Senate for passage of the bill, which will make it easier for workers to organize to improve their pay, benefits and working conditions. The bill (H.R. 800) passed the House in March, and is expected on the Senate floor soon.

The estimates of the positive impact on workers are based on the work of a Canadian labor economics professor, Susan Johnson, who has studied differences in labor representation between Canadian provinces that allow a majority sign-up system for union representation and those that do not.

In Canadian provinces that only allow a secret ballot election that could be manipulated by employer pressure tactics, union certification rates run about 9 percent below that of provinces where workers have the choice of a majority-sign-up system for signaling their desire for a union, Johnson found.

About 30 percent of the Canadian workforce is unionized, compared to 12 percent in the United States. Johnson found that 20 percent of the difference between the Canadian and U.S. representation rates can be attributed to the use of majority signup in some provinces.

The report estimates that if EFCA became law, union membership would increase by about 10 percent — thus increasing the pool of workers who are more likely to get access to employer-paid health insurance and retirement benefits. Based on this analysis, the Institute projects that 22 percent of the uninsured in Minnesota -- 101,429 people -- would get employer-based health insurance and 88,954 Minnesotans would gain employer-based pensions.

In recent years, it has become more and more difficult for workers to exercise their right to join a union. In 2005, more than 30,000 American workers were fired or illegally penalized for attempting to organize.

The Employee Free Choice Act would give workers a fair chance to form unions by:

- Giving workers the option to form unions by signing cards authorizing union representation.

- Providing mediation and arbitration for first-contract disputes.

- Placing stronger penalties on employers who violate worker rights.

A handful of U.S. Senators, including Republican Norm Coleman of Minnesota, are being targeted by both sides in the weeks before the vote. Minnesota's junior senator, DFLer Amy Klobuchar, is a co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act.

The Institute for America's Future, which issued the report, is a nonprofit think tank based in Washington, D.C.

For more information

View the full report at http://home.ourfuture.org/economy/20070423_efca_report/the-employee-free-choice-act.html