I worked at Georgia Pacific in Wheatfield, Indiana. I am one of the thousands of people who are fired each year for wanting a union.

My coworkers and I organized because of the widespread favor-itism, unfair pay, lack of respect from supervisors and the need for a voice to stop the things the company was trying to take away from us. Without a union, we had no way to stop them.

Georgia Pacific fought us every step of the way, holding forced meetings and speaking against the union. Yet we managed to stick together and vote to become union overwhelmingly, with nearly 71 percent support.

We elected a bargaining committee and sat down to negotiate a reasonable and fair first contract. It has now been two years and we still don’t have an agreement.

Georgia Pacific has come to us demanding wage and benefit cuts that we know do not make any sense to agree to because we know the company is highly profitable. Like so many companies, they are hoping we will get disgusted and decertify. So far we haven’t, and we keep bargaining, but it is wrong and unfair to go through this.

We have a committee to communicate with our members dur-ing this time. I work on this committee and very openly support the union. Along with some other coworkers I called the company hotline to complain about the fact that our personal addresses

seem to have gotten into the hands of some anti-union em-ployees who are mailing things to our homes. People are very upset about this and even signed a petition about our privacy being violated.

After I called, I was terminated. The company says it’s because I called the hotline to make this complaint. Without a contract all

the union can do is file an unfair labor practice charge. We feel very strongly this was done to silence other people from stepping forward.

The way the law is now it could take years for me to get my job back and then the company would probably just get a slap on the wrist. In the meantime, they’ve intimidated everyone.

Under the Employee Free Choice Act, we would have a contract by now at Georgia Pacific and I would not have been fired. We need this law to force companies like GP to have meaningful talks with unions to get a fair deal for the employees. We need it (EFCA) to stop companies from trying to scare people from sup-porting the union through unjust firings and discipline. Right now, this is what they are getting away with.

“We need it (EFCA) to stop companies from trying to scare people from support-ing the union through unjust firings and discipline.”

WWW.USW.ORG 1-877-511-8792