By Mary Tharin, ILRF intern

A new video has just been released featuring almost fifty popular actors and artists showing their support for the Employee Free Choice Act. Among those featured are Amy Brenneman, Nancy Giles, and Esai Morales, all explaining why the legislation is an essential step in the effort to take power from corporations and put it back in the hands of workers.

The video was developed by a large and diverse collaboration of unions and artist organizations including the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), The American Federation of Musicians (AFM) and the AFL-CIO. The video has been launched on Artists4WorkersChoice.org, where viewers are invited to take action by sending a letter to Congress urging the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.

The Employee Free Choice Act takes important steps to stop corporations from hindering the union-forming process by controlling elections and intimidating workers. The right to freely form unions if one of the Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work set down by the International Labor Organization (ILO). ILO Convention 87, which guarantees a workers’ right to organize and from unions, has not been ratified by the United States even though 149 other nations have already signed on.

Discrimination against trade unions is a global problem, which forces people all over the world to work in dangerous and unjust conditions. The United States should set an example by being at the forefront of progressive laws that support and defend workers when they try to form a union. Pressure is mounting to see worker’s rights effectively protected in this country by passing the Employee Free Choice Act.