EFCA Comprised?

Dueling guest posts about EFCA -- in jeopardy or not, already dead? -- and if the recent move to drop the "card check" provision of the legislation will be enough to resuscitate the measure. Or will it simply yield to other more priority legislative matters, health care chief among them?

Thoughts from advocates of opposing organizations (in full after the jump):

By Katie Packer of the Workforce Fairness Institute

According to recent news reports, a group of six Democratic Senators led by Tom Harkin has drafted a so-called "compromise" on the Employee 'Forced' Choice Act (EFCA). This "compromise" allegedly drops Big Labor's demand to replace secret ballot union elections with a card check process. The "compromise" does not change anything about the other equally dangerous part of EFCA - mandatory, binding arbitration that would be devastating to small businesses and workers.

Voters should not be fooled: union bosses have made it clear that they intend to reinsert card check into the bill at the first opportunity. But even the so-called "compromise" has provisions that would undermine the ability of workers to make informed decisions about unionization.

Current labor law protects the rights of employees to form unions and bargain collectively for work contracts. But more and more in recent years, employees have exercised their right to reject unionization. This is often a pocketbook decision: for many, the benefits of union membership do not justify the cost of dues. Now, labor bosses are looking for new ways to force workers into unions.

By Kimberly Freeman of American Rights at Work

Once again, the Workforce Fairness Institute and its Big Business allies are manufacturing facades in their opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act. Claiming to care about workers' rights, they are merely using the same tired arguments to distract lawmakers and the public from their real agenda - holding on to their grip of power for as long as possible. We shouldn't let their misleading claims and doomsday scenarios fool us. In these tough times, the Employee Free Choice Act is essential to restoring the balance and opportunities necessary to help workers get ahead.

With a President and majority of Congress committed to standing up for workers' rights and creating an economy that works for everyone, we are confident that there will be strong labor law reform this year. As with any piece of legislation, the details of the Employee Free Choice Act will be ironed out through many steps in the process. Yet with the added support from 73 percent of the public, we are optimistic that we can pass the strongest labor reforms in years based on three solid principles.

Workers must fundamentally have a free choice and a fair path to form a union. The bill's majority sign-up provision is the best way for workers to have the right to choose a voice at their workplace. And despite what corporate special interests repeatedly allege, the Employee Free Choice Act will not deny workers the right to a secret ballot union election. The anti-union crowd wants to distract everyone from the truth: that the measure allows workers, not their bosses, to make the choice in how they form a union.

Voters Should Not Be Fooled By So-Called EFCA "Compromise"

By Katie Packer

According to recent news reports, a group of six Democratic Senators led by Tom Harkin has drafted a so-called "compromise" on the Employee 'Forced' Choice Act (EFCA). This "compromise" allegedly drops Big Labor's demand to replace secret ballot union elections with a card check process. The "compromise" does not change anything about the other equally dangerous part of EFCA - mandatory, binding arbitration that would be devastating to small businesses and workers.

Voters should not be fooled: union bosses have made it clear that they intend to reinsert card check into the bill at the first opportunity. But even the so-called "compromise" has provisions that would undermine the ability of workers to make informed decisions about unionization.

Current labor law protects the rights of employees to form unions and bargain collectively for work contracts. But more and more in recent years, employees have exercised their right to reject unionization. This is often a pocketbook decision: for many, the benefits of union membership do not justify the cost of dues. Now, labor bosses are looking for new ways to force workers into unions.

To rush more unions into existence, Big Labor lobbied aggressively earlier this year for enactment of a card check system to replace secret ballot elections. With a card check system, when half-plus-one of a workforce signs cards, a union is formed. In some cases, a significant portion of employees could find themselves in a union before they even knew that a union drive was actually underway.

Because the secret ballot is a hallmark of free and fair elections, enough legislators rightly balked at card check to stall the Employee 'Forced' Choice Act. The proposed "compromise" bill drops card check, but replaces it with something almost as bad. Under the revised EFCA, a unionization vote would be held just five days after organizers collect and submit signed union cards from 30 percent of a company's employees. Employees would have less than a week to make a decision that would affect their pay, hours, benefits, and potentially even the survival of their company. Imagine having less than a week to decide on something with such a significant impact on your day-to-day life. Union bosses favor fast elections because workers who have more time to weigh the issues in detail and hear from both sides tend to make the informed decision to opt against unionization.

Worst of all, this "compromise" is nothing more than a legislative ruse. According to Andy Stern, head of the SEIU, union bosses fully intend to reintroduce card check through backdoor legislative tactics once the "compromise" legislation has achieved cloture in the Senate. The provision might be added as an amendment or tacked on when House and Senate versions of the bill are reconciled.

Though card check and five-day election deadlines represent different union certification policies, both would have the same effect: steamroll workers into unions they don't really support, while at the same time undermining the ability of small businesses to keep their doors open.

With the August congressional recess fast approaching and lawmakers focused on health care legislation, it is unlikely that EFCA in one form or another will come to a vote before Labor Day. But come September, Congress may try to act quickly to put this issue behind it - with a supposed "compromise." But speed is no substitute for smart policymaking. If Members of Congress want to put working families ahead of Big Labor, they must reject the Employee 'Forced' Choice Act including binding arbitration and card check altogether, and not put workers at risk by forcing them to engage in short elections.

Katie Packer is executive director of the Workforce Fairness Institute.

Lawmakers Must Embrace Meaningful Labor Law Reform, Not Recycled Scare Tactics

By Kimberly Freeman

Once again, the Workforce Fairness Institute and its Big Business allies are manufacturing facades in their opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act. Claiming to care about workers' rights, they are merely using the same tired arguments to distract lawmakers and the public from their real agenda - holding on to their grip of power for as long as possible. We shouldn't let their misleading claims and doomsday scenarios fool us. In these tough times, the Employee Free Choice Act is essential to restoring the balance and opportunities necessary to help workers get ahead.

With a President and majority of Congress committed to standing up for workers' rights and creating an economy that works for everyone, we are confident that there will be strong labor law reform this year. As with any piece of legislation, the details of the Employee Free Choice Act will be ironed out through many steps in the process. Yet with the added support from 73 percent of the public, we are optimistic that we can pass the strongest labor reforms in years based on three solid principles.

Workers must fundamentally have a free choice and a fair path to form a union. The bill's majority sign-up provision is the best way for workers to have the right to choose a voice at their workplace. And despite what corporate special interests repeatedly allege, the Employee Free Choice Act will not deny workers the right to a secret ballot union election. The anti-union crowd wants to distract everyone from the truth: that the measure allows workers, not their bosses, to make the choice in how they form a union.

Without question, there must be real consequences for employers who break the law. Currently, employers like Wal-Mart - a reported major funder of the Workforce Fairness Institute - can illegally intimidate, threaten, and fire pro-union workers with little consequence. The Employee Free Choice Act will toughen penalties against these corporations who abuse their power, and level the playing field for the employers who take care of their employees and play by rules.

Companies should also not be allowed to engage in endless delays and stall tactics to deny workers a collective bargaining agreement. Through the bill, both workers and companies will have the right to request a neutral mediator and then an arbitrator if they can't agree to a contract. The incentive of arbitration helps put an end to years of contract delays so workers can gain the advantages of better pay, benefits, and safe working conditions that come with a collective bargaining agreement.

The Workforce Fairness Institute's flawed assertion that workers don't want to join unions in recent years isn't due to a lack of a desire on their part. Hardly, as nearly 60 million Americans would join a union if they could, according to polling from Peter Hart Research. The decline in unionization actually relates to workers finding it harder to organize. In fact, a 2009 study by Dr. Kate Bronfenbrenner at Cornell University found that employers have become more aggressive, punitive, and coercive against pro-union workers within the last decade. It is truly unacceptable today that 34 percent of employers fire workers for their support of a union.

Despite the multi-million dollar assault on workers, their unions, and now the Employee Free Choice Act, momentum continues to grow for meaningful labor law reform. Workers have already waited far too long for solutions to our economic downturn, and we should not let them down. Congress must not allow the same greedy corporations who got us into this mess to use front groups like the Workforce Fairness Institute, organizations such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and their allied policymakers to resist any change in a system that favors them at the expense of the rest of us. So the next time we hear more arguments against measures like the Employee Free Choice Act, consider the source.

Kimberly Freeman is Acting Executive Director of American Rights at Work. www.AmericanRightsatWork.org