A standing-room only crowd is watching today as the U.S. Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee holds a hearing, “Rebuilding Economic Security: Empowering Workers to Restore the Middle Class,” that will take a close look at our economy, our labor laws and the need for the Employee Free Choice Act, which will be introduced in the U.S. House and Senate today. Sen. Tom Harkin opened the hearing with a powerful statement—greeted by applause from the large crowd—about the need to make sure the economic recovery includes everyone, by ensuring that workers have the ability to bargain for a fair share of the value they create. “The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into progress,” Harkin said, quoting Martin Luther King Jr. He said workers can’t get ahead unless they have the ability to choose a union and bargain. continue reading