Open Letter from Maine Women to Senator Snowe

Dear Senator Snowe,

We are writing you as working women and as women working for better wages and benefits to support our families, to strengthen our communities, and to build our economy. We stand united in our support of the reforms in the Employee Free Choice Act that will preserve key American values: workers' right to choose a union, penalizing bad faith behavior and practices, and restoring fairness and a level playing field in our workplaces.

This legislation is crucial to set new standards of fairness, compromise, and accountability in employer-employee relations. We know from well-documented experience across the country -- and some of us through personal experience -- that the ability of workers to form and join a union has been gravely undermined in the last thirty years, leading to an unlevel playing field.

We support increased penalties on companies who intimidate, punish or fire workers because they try to form a union. We have seen what happens when corporations aren't held accountable. Working families' wages have stagnated, while CEO pay has skyrocketed - and as a result, the whole economy has suffered. The Employee Free Choice Act will help working Americans hold corporations accountable, and will ensure that everyone benefits from America's prosperity -- not just those at the top.

This bill gives workers a chance to get a fair deal, providing them the tools they need and deserve so that everyone benefits from America's prosperity. With the economy struggling to get back on its feet, it's more important than ever that all Americans stand together to protect jobs and an economy that works for everyone.

We hope you will agree, and urge you to support passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.