Letter from Our Union President Monica Russo to Senator Bill Nelson on Employee Free Choice

March 12, 2009

The Honorable Bill Nelson
716 Hart Senate Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Nelson,

As our champion and co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act, I am proud to share with you the courage of democratic state legislators who this week took an unequivocal stand in support of workers’ rights to freely join a union and build a better future for Florida’s middle class. 

This week, Majority Leader Adam Hasner and freshman Senator Garrett Richter introduced a resolution misleadingly labeled “Save our Secret Ballot” – which seeks to place a constitutional amendment on the 2010 ballot to further restrict Florida workers’ rights to join unions. 

Though Representatives Oscar Braynon, Kelly Skidmore, Bill Heller, and Adam Fetterman were outnumbered 8 to 4 in the first committee of reference, they vigorously and eloquently exposed Majority Leader Adam Hasner’s resolution to “Save our Secret Ballot” as a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Together they fluently articulated that this was an attempt to divert attention from the crisis facing working families in Florida – job loss, healthcare, and foreclosures and that indeed, this bill would do nothing whatsoever to make the process to form a union more democratic, in fact it would further restrict workers’ rights. 

Representative Heller shared his compelling personal story with the committee that as a janitor he was harassed for supporting the union, he was given bathroom duty and he could ‘never get it right… the toilet was never clean enough.’  He underlined his conviction that you cannot divorce workers and their rights from good business.

Representative Skidmore, a well-known pro-choice advocate, objected to limiting choices for workers and Representative Fetterman pointed out the irony that the Majority party selected their speaker by pledge cards but that this was not an acceptable way for workers to do so if they so chose.  After a flurry of lobbyists rose in support of this bill, Representative Braynon expressed his hope that these same groups – Associated Industries of Florida, Retail Federation, and the Chamber – would likewise in the future come forward when it’s time to truly protect workers’ rights. 

These four champions were undeterred in their advocacy for working families, despite the fact that the majority leader warned committee members that they were ‘either for or against secrecy’ and that those who voted against this resolution were ‘against workers and against democracy.’

Additionally, the members of the Florida Conference of Black State Legislators, led by Representative Joe Gibbons, overwhelmingly offered their support in advancing the rights of Florida’s workers and the Senate Democratic Caucus under Senator Al Lawson’s leadership, unanimously voted to oppose this anti-working family agenda.   And of course our beloved Senator Tony Hill is unparalleled in his compassionate defense of Florida’s workers.  (see Hill’s press release attached)

We are proud that Florida’s democratic leadership – from freshmen to veterans and from the State House to the United States Senate – are circling the wagons for Florida’s workers.

Thank you for your leadership and compassion for Florida’s working families,
Monica Russo
President
SEIU Florida

W/Enclosures

cc:    Congresswoman Corrine Brown
    Congresswoman Katherine Castor
    Congressman Alan Grayson
    Congressman Alcee Hastings
    Congresswoman Suzanne Kosmas
    Congressman Kendrick Meek
    Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Shultz
    Congressman Robert Wexler