EFCA (Card Check) Could Reach Congress The Week of March 9th
Three things of note as we anticipate the Card Check legislative being introduced:
- February 25, 2009 Senator Jim DeMint (SC) and Rep John Kline (MN) introduced bills in their respective houses to ensure the rights of employees to a secret-ballot election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board. HR 1176 has 103 sponsors; S 478 has 19 sponsors.
- Today, labor groups and union officials indicated they are confident they have the votes to pass card-check legislation in both chambers, but it hinges on seating Minnesota Democratic Senate candidate Al Franken. That disputed race, locked in a court battle, could take weeks to resolve. "We hope to have more votes than 60, but at the worst case we're going to have to have Al Franken to get there," said AFL-CIO Legislative Director Bill Samuel. The controversial legislation will face a filibuster attempt in the Senate, and in addition to the 52 supporters from the last time, it will need all seven new Democrats and Franken to end debate on the bill.
Samuel's calculations assume no senator changes his or her vote, including Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. Business groups are pressuring him and moderate Democrats from conservative states, including Sens. Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, to oppose the bill. "If they have the votes, it's interesting that they haven't brought the bill up yet," said Randel Johnson, vice president for labor issues at the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce. Both sides are bracing for the bill's introduction in the House in the coming weeks. The Chamber is flying local business leaders to Washington next week to press members to vote no, while a Service Employees International Union local in Los Angeles sent out a news release this week announcing an event to support the bill, timed to coincide with the bill's tentative introduction Monday. But a spokesman for House Education and Labor Chairman George Miller said a decision has not been made on the legislation's timing. "We think it will be within days or at most weeks," Samuel said.
3. On February 25th, Senate HELP Committee Chairman Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and House Education and Labor Committee Chairman Rep. George Miller (D-CA) held a briefing on Capitol Hill with several economists for Congressional staff. This briefing focused on the claim that the EFCA is now necessary in order to assist employees during the current economic downturn. These economists claim that the EFCA will “restore some balance to our labor markets.” The group recently purchased a full page ad in the Washington Post which can be viewed at: http://epi.3cdn.net/1eb9aba51935a5b82b_13m6iixpt.pdf
Card Check (EFCA) Articles:
Card Check (EFCA)
Chamber Switching Focus to Fighting Arbitration Measure
by Kasie Hunt, Congress Daily - February 2009
Using government arbitrators to force labor and management into first collective bargaining agreements eliminates employees' opportunity to vote to ratify contracts, the Chamber of Commerce wrote in a letter sent to lawmakers this week. The letter focuses on a less-noticed part of the Employee Free Choice Act -- a provision that would force unions and companies into arbitration if they do not agree on a first contract within 90 days. The Chamber sent its message to the chairmen and ranking members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and the House Education and Labor Committee. "Today, employees as a rule have an opportunity to vote on the employer's final contract offer.... Under a mandatory interest arbitration process, an employee's opportunity to vote on ratification is lost," the Chamber wrote. (read more) |
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Today, the Center for Union Facts (CUF) released a unique new poll which found that 82% of non-unionized American workers would not like their jobs to be unionized. The poll, which was conducted by the Opinion Research Corporation of Princeton, New Jersey, clearly demonstrates that an overwhelming number of Americans have no interest in joining a union.
Despite this, Democratic leadership in Congress continues to push the deceptively-named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which would effectively force millions of Americans into unions against their will by eliminating their right to a secret ballot vote. This poll indicates that there is no national mandate for a dramatic change in the law to make it easier to unionize. It further exposes the fact that EFCA’s backers are a small group of labor elites trying to push legislation that goes against the interests of America’s workforce.
Unlike labor unions and their affiliated front groups who refuse to release any of their polls’ methodology, CUF’s poll is a straight-forward measurement of Americans interest in joining a union. In addition to gathering basic demographic information, we asked the following two questions to respondents (n = 1,142) who indicated that they were currently employed.
Are you or is someone in your immediate family in a labor union?
Of those that answered “no”, we asked:
Would you like your job to be unionized?
Margin of Error: +/- 2%
Click here to download a complete description of the poll methodology
“Union leaders can no longer hide behind unsubstantiated claims regarding non-existent support for the Employee Forced Choice Act,” said Rick Berman Executive Director of the Center for Union Facts. “It is clear that the vast majority of Americans have seen the problems associated with unionization and have no interest in paying dues to union officials.”
“Our polling methodology and data are available to the public for review. If union leadership wasn’t trying to hide the fact that an overwhelming number of Americans oppose their efforts, they would do the same.”
This article is posted at the CANYS issues page.
More Newspapers come out against EFCA; Trouble Brewing with CA SEIU |
Employee Free Choice Act Will Hurt Both Businesses and, Eventually, Employees
and The Unions That Demand Its Passage
By By Bob Heiferman & Joe Martin
December 15, 2008
Despite the U.S. and world economies in turmoil, organized labor is continuing to pressure Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act (“EFCA”) to “save” the day. According to the unions, implementing the Act would stimulate the economy by allowing unions to organize workers more easily and this would result in a boost to the economy. Unfortunately, organized labor is sadly mistaken.
Aside from denying employees the right to a secret ballot, something protected since the enactment of existing legislation, EFCA contains a mandatory arbitration provision that has received little attention. This arbitration provision carries economic consequences that run contrary to labor’s assertions that the bill would rehabilitate the economy. (read more) |
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