Following are excerpts of comments made by former Democratic Congressman David Bonior at the Employee Free Choice Act rally in Detroit on Oct.18. Bonior is chairman of American Rights at Work, a national advocacy organization launched in 2003 to advance workers' rights to organize and collectively bargain.

"I think everybody is here for a reason, you're tired of the same old thing. We have been saddled in this country with a government that has been incompetent and government that has practiced malfeasance. They need to leave Washington D.C. This crowd has done so much damage to this country.

"But change is coming - you can feel it in the air. When 93 percent of this people in this country say they want a new direction, by God we're going to get a new direction. And that direction has to include the Employee Free Choice Act.

"In 1935 the Wagner Act was passed it gave people the right and encouragement to form a union. That word, union, again will be a proud word from those who are governing this country. We will turn the tide on the direction of the union density numbers in America. And we will do it because people understand that if you belong to a labor union in the USA today you'll get 28 percent more pay than someone with a similar job, 62 percent more likely to get health benefits, four times more likely to get health benefits. You get a voice at work and dignity and a voice at work. All of that comes with that package.

"A Peter Hart poll of America people said if they could join a union, 62 percent said 'yes I would.'

"The reason we only have 13 percent union density is we have a have a union-busting mentality in this country that was put together by the right wing. They planned this out. They planned out the idea to make the NLRB process just about impossible to get a union formed today. We're going to get this Employee Free Choice Act passed because people are sick and tired. They're sick and tired of people at the top being able to work with a contract. You think a CEO would work without a contract? Doesn't every worker in the U.S. deserve a contract?

"The EFCA does three things. It allows people to do what's called majority sign up. When more than 50 percent of people sign a card, it's verified, you've got a union. Just like they do in Canada and 79 other countries around the world. That's what we need.

"And once people have a union, then they have a right to a speedy contract. No more six months, no more one year, no more two years of dragging it out until it all disappears.

"And thirdly we need to have some good penalties in there for those who violate the law. Because the law is violated every single day in this country - 20,000 to 30,000 workers in this country are fired every year, discriminated against in the workplace for trying to form a union. Those are the numbers that come out of the National Labor Relations Board, the numbers are probably much higher because everybody does it.

"So our job is to make that known to the American people. That we want to level the playing field. And our job is to get Barack Obama elected president and to get a Democratic Congress and to get the Employee Free Choice Act done quickly as one of the first orders of business, if not the first, when the new Congress convenes in January.

"The fight does not end on Nov. 4. There are people who are going to resist voting for this. We'll pass it in the House again. I don't want a member of the House to tell you, 'I'm going to vote for that' - I want you up here speaking about it, I want you to talk to your colleagues about this, I want you to be a leader on this. That's what we need to demand from every member of the U.S. Congress.

"When we're done we will create a tidal wave of justice in this country we have not seen since 1935 when all this began. If we pass the Employee Free Choice Act we will have millions of workers joining a union within a relatively short period of time in this country. It will be a movement that we can be proud of. It will be a movement of a coalition of worker justice. It will be a movement that will send a message to the rest of the country that we believe in families, that we believe in the American Way, the way it's supposed to be."

FORMER CONGRESSMAN and American Rights at Work Chairman David Bonior speaks to the rally in Detroit on Oct. 18.