The freedom to form and join unions is a fundamental right
protected by our constitutional freedom of association, our
nation’s labor laws, and international human rights laws,
including the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is
a right for which millions of Americans have struggled. The
freedom to form unions is of special importance to the civil and
women’s rights movements because unions help ensure adequate
wages, health care coverage and retirement security. It was the
right to form a union that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was
supporting during the Memphis sanitation strike when he was
assassinated on April 4. 1968. Unions also help to reduce the
wage gap for women and people of color, and can prevent
arbitrary and discriminatory employer behavior. As community
leaders and activists we ask for your support of the “Employee
Free Choice Act.” This legislation provides for recognition of a
union when the majority of employees voluntarily sign
authorization cards, guarantees a first contract thro