August 12, 2008 -- Communications Workers of America President Larry Cohen urged delegates to support a labor-wide effort to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. The bill will finally protect workers against discrimination and harassment during organizing campaigns and protect private sector workers’ bargaining rights. “We need to rebuild a middle class that is reeling,” Cohen said. “The system has crumbled in so many ways.”

To change the system, Cohen is leading an AFL-CIO effort to collect one million signatures in support of the Employee Free Choice Act. Cohen says the AFL-CIO will submit the signatures to Congress as a show of support for the bill.

Passing the Act and increasing the number of workers in unions will restore the middle class, help us win health care for some of the 50 million Americans without health care and preserve retirement security, Cohen said.

Signature cards were given to each delegate, and IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger urged delegates to sign the cards and support the legislation. “Passing the Employee Free Choice Act will go a long way toward leveling the playing field for workers,” Schaitberger said.

“In the United States, even for our [700,000] CWA members, every negotiation is about holding on to what a previous generation fought for.”

But Cohen credited the IAFF for its aggressive political action program that has resulted in building s profession to be proud of. “Harold is a mentor for me. His political work has helped the entire labor movement understand what to do and how to do it,” Cohen said.