Prospects for Labor Law Reform Under the Obama Administration

Panel Discussion | January 5 | 12-1:30 p.m. | Elihu Harris State Office Building, Conference Room 2, Second Floor

Location: 1515 Clay Street, Oakland, CA 94612

Panelist/Discussants: Jonathan Hiatt, AFL-CIO General Counsel; Steven Greenhouse, New York Times Labor Reporter and Author of The Big Squeeze

Speaker/Performer: Sara Steffens, Union Organizer and former Contra Costa Times Reporter

Sponsor: UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education

Organized labor&39;s number one legislative priority for 2009 is the enactment of the Employee Free Choice Act. In order to restore workers&39; right to choose a union, the Employee Free Choice Act would impose greater penalties on employers who discriminate against union supporters, provide for mediation and arbitration when employers and unions fail to negotiate first contracts, and allow workers to form a union when over 50 percent sign union membership cards. But labor groups are expecting a hard fought campaign, during which the business community, which spent millions of dollars on anti-Employee Free Choice Act ads during the 2008 election cycle, will try to block this labor law reform. This event will cover the reality for workers trying to organize under current US labor law, the link between economic recovery and labor law reform, and the prospects for enactment of the Employee Free Choice Act in 2009.

Sponsored by the UC Berkeley Labor Center; AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee; Alameda Labor Council, AFL-CIO; Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law; Boalt Hall Labor Coalition; California Labor Federation; and National Lawyers Guild Labor and Employment Committee.

A light lunch will be served. Please RSVP to: Andrea Buffa, andreabuffa@berkeley.edu, 510-642-6371.

Event Contact: 510-642-6371