Back in February, Senator John Kerry had a great op-ed in The Herald News on how the Employee Free Choice Act will be a boon for small businesses around the country. Today small business owner Terri Monley has an op-ed in the Denver Post making the case for Employee Free Choice as a tool for rebuilding the economy. Monley writes:

Small Business Administration data show that small businesses are less likely to go bankrupt in states with higher unionization, and that’s a big reason why I support the Employee Free Choice Act. It’s a simple formula for me and my business: When more workers have better jobs with higher wages, then more money is going into the local economy. That’s more money that will go to my business, and more money that I will then spend with other small businesses in Colorado.

The middle class is disappearing in this country as top executives keep most of the money for themselves. CEOs are making 344 times more than the average worker. In the United States, productivity is up nearly 20 percent between 2000 and 2006, profits have doubled, and yet most workers have not been able to share in that prosperity. It doesn’t do me or my business any good for some executive at AIG to make another $1 million. But when average workers are doing better, then they are going to spend that money locally. That’s how we improve our economy.

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Under the Employee Free Choice Act, federal labor law exemptions for many small businesses will not change. But if more workers in the community are in unions, those are workers who are in better jobs. They’re also customers who will be spending more in their local economies, where we need help the most.

Monley’s piece is a good reminder that while Big Business is deploying a dozen anti-American worker outfits to scare people about the Employee Free Choice Act, the people who are paying attention know this is about the sort of economy we’re building in America. It’s a question of whether all the power should be in the hands of the CEOs at big corporations or if workers and small businesses should have the ability and opportunity to succeed too. Fundamentally this is a question of who the rules that govern the economy should work for: the powerful executives or the workers who drive the American economic engine?