This is a correspondence with a small business owner in support of the Employee Free Choice Act. The email is being published to Union Review with permission from the individual whom I held the correspondence with. -R 

 

Hi Richard,

 

I saw your last diary on DailyKos and thought I'd shoot you a line.

 

Have you seen the GOP's latest ads attacking Democrats for being pro-labor rights?  They suggest that the Employee Free Choice Act would destroy small businesses.  As a small business, I'd like to tell the truth about labor law, that small companies don't have the huge benefits from violating the law that our scofflaw big business competitors enjoy.  Although the AFL-CIO and other unions are countering the ads, most undecided independant voters view unions with suspicion.  But as an actual small business owner, my support for the EFCA might have some credibility for the average American, that doesn't know much about unions except for what the GOP and big business has heaviliy promoted.

 

See my letter to the Denver Post, regarding their article's statement: "Republicans sense an opportunity, painting the Employee Free Choice Act as the doom of small business and a violation of basic democratic principles." http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_9790976

 

Best regards,

 

John Rose

Santa Rosa Sweets

johnrose@libertycookies.com

 

-----Original Message-----
From: john rose [mailto:johnrose@libertycookies.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 2008 3:39 PM
To: mriley@denverpost.com; editor@denverpost.com
Cc: info@coloradodems.org; John Rose
Subject: The Denver Post: Labor battle line crosses Colo.

Regarding your article on the Employee Free Choice Act, you weren't given the whole story on small businesses and labor law.

 

First, the vast majority of small businesses are exempt from Federal labor law.  According to the US Census, 97% of all businesses have no employees.  According to the National Federation of Independant Businesses, their typical member has less than 5 employees and less than $350,000 in annual revenue, and are thus exempt from the National Labor Relations Act.  http://www.nfib.com/page/nfibRepresents.html    Although the NFIB has been around since 1943, and Republicans have often been the majority party in Washington, the Federal exemption for small businesses has remained stagnant at $500,000 in gross interstate trade since 1959.  Adjusted for inflation, the threshold for the National Labor Relations Board to hear a case would be $3.1 million.   If the NFIB and Republicans are truly anti-union and friends of small businesses, it is inexplicable that they have not pushed for more small businesses to remain exempt from Federal labor law.

 

Republicans claim that the EFCA would be "the doom of small business and a violation of basic democratic principles."  The fact of the matter is that only big businesses benefit from abuse of current labor law.  Walmart is often blamed for putting many Mom and Pop shops out of businesses due to their size and ability to get better deals from their suppliers.  The one advantage that Mom and Pop have is that they don't have a sizable workforce that can organize a union.  Walmart's employees however, are critical to the functioning of the company and might increase Walmart's labor costs if they demanded a living wage.  It should be noted that a Sam's Club competitor, Costco, does manage to remain competitive and abide by labor law.  Certainly small businesses, even if they fall under federal labor law jurisdiction, would find it less expensive to abide by the law than to hire expensive labor busters or fire any union supporters.  The abuse of labor law requires a large and anonymous workforce and is tactic only effective for big business.

 

Also, though Republicans call the EFCA a violation of basic democratic principles, the Supreme Court has long recognized the right of employees to use card check and other methods, such as striking, to show majority support for a union.  The EFCA still allows businesses to challenge a card check election if any illegal coercion is suspected.  But the basic democratic principle of majority rules still applies whether the vote is secret, signed by name, or by forming a picket line in front of the business.

 

As a small business owner in support of enforcing current labor law, I hope you will set the record straight for the good citizens of Colorado who deserve the full story.

 

Sincerely,

 John Rose

Liberty Cookies, Inc.

johnrose@libertycookies.com

 

John,

 

Thanks for this great note. I am here in Austin for the rest of the week to be part of Netroots Nation and so I am first now getting to some emails, sorry for the delay.

 

I really like what you wrote here and, if you have the time, I'd urge you to either post this correspondence to UnionReview.com -- or give me permission to post it for you. I think a lot of the UnionReview.com readers would greatly appreciate reading what you wrote.

 

In Solidarity,

-Richard Negri / Union Review

         

Hi Richard,

 

I'd love it if you ran this for me.  I would post myself, and sometimes do on DailyKos, but often my posts are lost at the bottom of a sea of other worthy issues.

 

Btw, my support for the EFCA and labor rights emerged several years ago when I tried to stop the offshoring of high tech jobs by forming a union.  My employer engaged in illegal tactics to prevent me from discussing the issue with coworkers.  As a result, a few thousand local jobs making signal analyzing equipment heavily used by the Department of Defense are now in Malaysia.  If ever there were jobs that a nation would want to keep, these were the jobs.  Not only is there the security aspect, but a good percentage of our assembly line workers wound up becoming highly trained technicians and engineers.  No longer will we develop that capability.

 

Anyhow, Republicans claiming small business is harmed by enforcing labor law really offends me.  Individuals, small businesses, and America all benefit when the law is upheld and respected.

 

Best regards,

 

John Ros

Santa Rosa Sweets

johnrose@libertycookies.com