Workers at the state level are moving to secure their lawmakers’ support for the federal Employee Free Choice Act, which would ensure that when a majority of employees in a workplace decide to form a union, they can do so without the debilitating obstacles employers now use to block their workers’ free choice.

When workers seek to form a union in the private-sector—whether at a construction site or in an office, hospital or manufacturing plant—their bosses almost always obstruct their efforts through threats and harassment, according to a report by Cornell University scholar Kate Bronfenbrenner. Some employers even fire workers for trying to form unions, which is against the law.

Union activists are urging state legislators to pass resolutions in support of the federal Employee Free Choice Act, providing for majority verification, first contract arbitration and better remedies for National Labor Relations Act violations. At the same time, they are urging their members of Congress and senators to co-sponsor the reintroduction of the Employee Free Choice Act.

Learn more about the Employee Free Choice Act.