One of the most important priorities for workers, inside and outside the union movement, is the Employee Free Choice Act. It would give workers the freedom they need to bargain for better lives and a real voice in the workplace.

Current labor law forces most workers to have to endure weeks of pressure in meetings with management, threats, and loss of jobs when trying to form a union. The penalty for employers who violate a workers right to form a union is virtually nothing.

The Employee Free Choice Act would give workers the opportunity to have a union, provided 51 percent of the workforce signed a card stating they want a union. This would eliminate pressure and levy tough penalties on employers who violate a worker's right to form a union.

In a dozen states, VoteVets.org, Veterans and Military Families for Progress, Veterans' Alliance for Security and Democracy, and the AFL-CIO Union Veterans Council are teaming up to host military veterans, family members, and union members for rallies, roundtable discussions, and mobilization events. More than 2 million union members - 14 percent of all union members - are veterans, and, along with national veterans' groups, they're ready to mobilize for a level playing field in the workplace and the freedom to bargain for the economic opportunity they deserve.

Nationwide, dozens of faith groups have joined with environmental, community, and academic organizations in support of the legislation, which would level the playing field for workers seeking to form unions.

The labor movement is determined to pass the Employee Free Choice Act to restore the freedom of workers to form unions and bargain collectively, to end 30 years of stagnant and declining wages, to strengthen and deepen the middle class, and to end the corporate assault on workers when they try to form unions.

Corporations and their right-wing allies want to preserve an increasingly untenable status quo: union-busting, rampant retaliation against workers trying to organize, the greatest inequity in the United States since 1929, a declining and shrinking middle class, an economic crisis created in part by a severe lack of consumer demand, growing poverty, and a severe health-care crisis.

In Indiana, community groups and union members across the state are engaged in the fight for the Employee Free Choice Act, pushing back against corporate anti-worker disinformation campaigns.

Kokomo has two hospitals filled with hard-working people who would love to have the opportunity to join a union if there were no fear of reprisal. Kokomo's two super center stores have workers calling unions wishing to join, but they're afraid they will lose their jobs if their employers find out.

The Employee Free Choice Act would eliminate that fear and make for a level playing field for those who wish to have a union in their workplace. To date, more than 180 major organizations not affiliated with labor have signed on in support for the Employee Free Choice Act.

President Obama says he will sign the legislation should it reach his desk. The problem is corporate America has been pouring in hundreds of millions of dollars to fight a workers freedom to form a union without fear of reprisal.

The Employee Free Choice Act is what America needs. Those people that are brave enough to stand up for their co-workers need protection from firings and harassment, and this bill will do just that. We all need to step up and get involved in this campaign because this is our best shot to reform the current laws.

We urge you to contact Sen. Evan Bayh and Sen. Richard Lugar and tell them as taxpayers of Indiana you want them to vote for the Employee Free Choice Act. You might remind them if they fail to vote for a workers right to have a union without fear and intimidation, then they will not get your vote come election time.

(Larry Johnson is with the GMP union.)