On Monday, I met up with Super Asian American Lawyer Jennifer Lai, a former Union organizer, to ask her about the Employee Free Choice Act. Her responses are below:

[FTW: She was super nice! and is an amazing person, so please check this out!]

1. Why are unions important for America?

Unions are frontline organizations of ordinary working people in the U.S. Workers create an enormous amount of power when they organize into unions. Workers then use this power to advance their common interests and goals. Strong and democratic unions are at the core of any progressive base.

2. How will the Employee Free Choice Act help workers?

EFCA is a once in a lifetime opportunity to restore the basic right to organize to U.S. workers. Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 guarantees every person's right to organize a union and engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining. Employer practices and abuses have eviscerated this right. Workers who stand up and fight for unions are routinely fired and intimidated by their employers.

No Asian Americans were harmed in the making of this photograph. But, this could be you.

3. Why should Asian Americans care about the Employee Free Choice Act?

EFCA enables all workers, including millions of Asian American workers, to exercise their right to organize in a meaningful way. Asian American workers, particularly low-wage immigrant and refugee workers, have a long history of labor activism from the plantation strikes in Hawaii to the garment workers’ strike of the 1980s to the activism among Asian American workers in the factories, hospitals, and offices of today. Asian America will write a new chapter of its labor history with EFCA.

Unions are essential to a functioning democracy in the workplace.

4. Groups like the Chamber of Commerce (and/or the RNC) have issued detailed talking points arguing against enactment of EFCA. One of the primary legal arguments brought up by the Chamber of Commerce is that the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) already protects workers and that additional protections are unnecessary. How can we educate ourselves to better understand what's really going on?

You can do several things.

First, understand why EFCA brings immediate relief and justice in the organizing trenches. Talk with workers and organizers. We will tell you about the typical employer-launched attack that ensues after workers file for NLRB elections under existing law. Employers usually hire "union avoidance" firms, terminate some leaders of the union, offer promotions to the others, and engage in unethical and unlawful behavior without impunity. Read more about EFCA’s specific corrective provisions here: http://www.epi.org/.

Second, understand why EFCA is instrumental to our economic recovery. A number of leading economists, including Nobel laureates, Joseph Stiglitz, Kenneth Arrow, Robert Solow, and Paul Krugman, support EFCA.

Finally, understand how EFCA leads to lasting corporate reform. An organized and empowered rank and file in any industry will decrease the risk of corporate abuse and will help restore ethics and proper governance in business.

Shameless multi-ethnic high five picture, sorry! Couldn't help it!

Feel free to check our previous posts on this subject:

Part 1 [Here]
Part 2 [Interview with Kent Wong of the UCLA Labor Center]

*Seriously, call your members of Congress today and ask him or her to support the Employee Free Choice Act.