A panel of labor rights activists at the University of Wisconsin Wednesday called for the United States Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act to ensure employees’ right to unionize.

The EFCA is a piece of legislation currently pending in Congress that aims to make it easier for workers to unionize and increase the penalties to companies violating labor laws.

The panel of activists said under the current system of laws, the right of workers to organize into unions has been impeded by companies, which routinely intimidate and fire people looking to unionize.

Panelist and UW history professor Will Jones said a federal agency called the National Labor Relations Board is supposed to regulate the formation of unions.

Under current labor laws, employees looking to unionize have to collect signatures of people in support of the formation on cards.

If this process is challenged by the company or a competing union, the NLRB is supposed to coordinate a secret ballot election. In essence, the employee’s privacy is protected and the employers do not know who is in support of unionization.

“It’s nearly impossible to form a union with a secret ballot election,” Jones said.

According to Jones, the NLRB has become weak and underfunded. Therefore, union supporters are fired, companies campaign against unions and employers refuse to negotiate with unions. Jones said these actions are “technically illegal.”

The new piece of legislation would bypass the employers and allow the employees to choose whether to use the card system of union formation, or secret ballots.

Panelist and UW sociology professor Chad Goldberg said a dominant objection to the act, that EFCA will compromise employees’ right to a private vote, does not actually apply and the act will provide options on how to conduct a vote.

UW human resources and management professor Larry Hunter, while “not sympathetic to management,” said the objection could be valid. Certain employees may want to have a secret ballot, and the new act leaves the option open for employees to just have a card-signing process of union formation.

Hunter said there is some merit to the objection that the act will take away the right of employees to have a secret ballot; some employees may want to have extra time to consider the pros and cons of union formation.

Hunter added he does not believe the act will pass in its current form, but nevertheless some labor law reformation should occur.

Jim Giedd, a coordinator for The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, said he thinks the EFCA should pass just how it is.

“[The EFCA] gives the opportunity for other people to join a union without having the employer coming down on the employees,” Giedd said.

According to Giedd, the law gives a newly formed union one year to negotiate a contract with an employer.

Giedd said under the current system, employers can simply not negotiate with a newly formed union. The employees then have to start over.