Workers’ rights activists are backing legislative efforts to strengthen collective bargaining rights for public workers, including allowing majority verification. In majority verification the employer agrees to recognize the workers’ choice to join a union when a majority sign union authorization cards.

States can set workers’ rights rules and regulations governing public-sector workers and many state labor relations laws are modeled on the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)--and include the NLRA’s delay-ridden representation process, with its debilitating obstacles to employee free choice. This process doesn’t provide workers with freedom to choose whether to be represented by a union because workers are forced to wait months and years and endure harassment and discrimination while legal wrangling keeps them from enjoying the benefits of unionism. Democratic, majority verification procedures are necessary to avoid anti-democratic employer coercion.

State, county, and municipal employees, teachers, university workers, and fire fighters and police officers in many states do not have the right to representation and collective bargaining and/or their mandatory subjects of bargaining are limited by statute. In addition, many groups of workers are excluded from collective bargaining coverage because they are considered “independent contractors,” instead of employees.

Working families are mobilizing to win measures to extend collective bargaining rights to public workers currently denied such rights.