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National labor leaders and local workers from across the state mobilized outside Central High School with civil rights activists in support of the Employee Free Choice Act that's pending in Congress to restore workers' freedom to join a union and bargain for a better life.
The Employee Free Choice Act allows workers to negotiate with their employer after a majority approve through a simple card check vote. Only after a good faith agreement is reached and approved in a secret ballot vote do the workers have a union. The Act also enforces current labor law by placing real consequences on illegal union busting.
United Steelworkers International President Leo W. Gerard; Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer; and Arlene Holt Baker, the first African-American executive vice president of the AFL-CIO, IBEW President Ed Hill, CWA Secretary-Treasurer Jeff Rechenbach and widely known civil rights leader, joined other national labor, civil rights, and faith leaders in an historic march and rally to call on the Arkansas congressional delegation to support the bill that removes obstacles to the right to organize.
Early Saturday morning, workers traveled from send-off points in Texarkana, Ft. Smith, Pine Bluff and other cities in the state to meet at Central High School. They honored the sacrifices and contribution of the Little Rock 9 to freedom for all Americans. Led by Arkansas ministers, they marched to the nearby State Capitol Building in Little Rock to urge the Arkansas congressional delegation standup for workers and vote for the Employee Free Choice Act.
After the rally on the steps of the state capitol, the marchers gathered at the adjacent Arkansas Education Association for an old-fashioned Arkansas catfish fry.
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