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NewsFlash: February 28, 2007

Latest data show more want unions

As Congress moves to consider the Employee Free Choice Act, which would grant workers more say over unionization in their workplace, the latest data show that this legislation is strongly in sync with the public mood.

Today’s Economic Policy Institute Snapshot  summarizes new findings by Harvard economist Richard Freeman that American workers’ desire for union representation at work has risen steadily over the past two decades and is higher today than at any time in the recent past. As of 2005, 53 percent of nonunion workers wanted a union while only about a third said they would vote against one.

“The heavy thumb of anti-union policies has tipped the scales in the workplace, creating more and more obstacles to workers’ efforts to have a say in establishing their wages and working conditions,” said author and EPI vice president  Ross Eisenbrey . “The widening gap between the 12 percent with union representation and the 53 percent who want it shows us that the Employee Free Choice Act is sorely needed to restore workers’ voice and bring employees’ rights back into balance with employers’ prerogatives.”

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