Employee Free / Forced Choice Act

Labor and Business go at it over NLRA Revisions

EFCA is proposed legislation that is now up for review in the Senate regarding revisions to the original National Labor Relations Act of 1935. There are already strong arguments that have been made from the left and the right regarding this act's potential impact on business and labor. Here is what some are saying.

Proponents (Labor: AFL-CIO, SEIU)

1. Will protect the middle class
2. Will stop corporate intimidation in organizing a union

Opponents (Conservative Think Tanks, Union-Busters: Heritage Foundation, Labor Relation Institute)

1. Will allow very small units in large organizations to run a "card check" certification, effectively unionizing a small subsection of a business without an election
2. Ends Union elections, and silences employees by banning elections
3. Will require an election to disband a Union
4. Will create more union employees that pay union dues, which will end up back in Democrats hands and make labor standards even more strict on companies, starting a cycle of more Democrats in Congress, less speech for companies and eventually, a Socialist State
   

And some other resources
Ed and Labor Committee Fact Sheet
Language of EFCA

The Issues at Hand
Card Check vs. Secret Ballot - The most hotly debated of all of the issues with the employee free choice act is that the NLRB would now be directed that,

"...whenever a petition shall have been filed by an employee or group of employees or any individual or labor organization acting in their behalf alleging that a majority of employees in a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining wish to be represented by an individual or labor organization for such purposes, the Board shall investigate the petition. If the Board finds that a majority of the employees in a unit appropriate for bargaining has signed valid authorizations designating the individual or labor organization specified in the petition as their bargaining representative and that no other individual or labor organization is currently certified or recognized as the exclusive representative of any of the employees in the unit, the Board shall not direct an election but shall certify the individual or labor organization as the representative described in subsection."

Campaigning when starting a Union - Unions are often not allowed to campaign on the companies' premises while the company can force anti-union meetings
Collective Bargaining - After an election is held and a Union established, companies can drag on bargaining indefinitely

So what does EFCA actually do?
It would revoke part of Taft - Hartley Act by freeing up the NLRB to recognize a collective bargaining unit with a majority instead of giving a company the ability to require an election after a majority has already been heard.
It would impose harsher penalties on companies that impose unfair labor practices such as intimidation and firing
It would end first-contract bargaining more quickly by requiring arbitration by an outside source when demands cannot be met on both sides within 120 days and lock that contract in effect for 2 years.
It would allow an organizing force to effectively organize a company's employees even before a company has an opportunity to add its opinion to those being weighed by the employees.
It will kill a lot of Union-busting companies by shortening their window of opportunity prior to an election.

At first, I was very skeptical about this bill and thought that I might end up being pulled to the right by it. I had read that it would only take 30% of employees signing a card to form a recognized union. I had read that employees would not be allowed an election and would be forced to use the card-check system. However, these things are not true and if you look at the actual bill's language, there is nothing even close to that in the bill. It will however, probably make it easier for employees to organize, and that will be a dangerous thing for companies and Republicans (as listed as #4 under Opponents, above) and luckily there is a very simple solution for that.

So the Opinion:
1. EFCA, as it stands, is a good bill. It's clean and will make it easier for employees to organize which is a good thing for those employees.
2. EFCA will not end Union elections, nor force public card-checks, but will allow for those who have already done a card-check with 50% or more (the same majority needed during the election) to be recognized. There is no reason to hold an election once 50% of workers have already voted in favor of something.
3. Campaign Finance needs to be changed before this bill is passed or soon thereafter. If there is anything that is wrong with EFCA, it is that the balance of political power in state capitols and D.C. will change and we will see an increase in Labor's power. It will swing the country as more employees are organized. Then paying dues, that money will go to more Pro-Labor Electeds and eventually to a Labor-controlled state. Maybe it's time, those of you on the right who have been anti-campaign finance reform, to reconsider as this is about to tip the balance pretty quickly and leave you out in the cold.

**UPDATE: From the Wall Street Journal, "The bill doesn't remove the secret-ballot option from the National Labor Relations Act." Granted this article is really negative towards unions, but at least they figured out that it's not un-american...

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Today's List
2007 Votes for Cloture in the Senate

Going Galt

Atlases of our Society are pissed and are considering societal fissure

I have to start this by saying that I was really hoping to cover the EFCA. I was also urged to cover the budget today, all of which I will dedicate great care in dealing with this week...but I have to take some time to really flesh out this phenomenon - and this is my format for that.

To begin, an operational definition (note: this definition has been derived from readings that are generally from the persuasion of the oppressed and therefore intimate a personal tie to the phrase) is provided:

Going Galt: (verb)
1. to lead the oppressed creative and successful individuals of a society to begin a new society that is not socialist in nature.
2. to remove oneself from an oppressive state that has actively taxed (literally or metaphorically) you as a producer of wealth within that society

I want to start by talking about the issue that is at hand that leads those who are considering going Galt to do so. This seems to have something to do with the income tax increase of 3% on any income over $250,000 that has been proposed by the oppressive, and now apparently Socialist, Democrats. For those of you out there who do not understand the tax tables that you have your CPA handle each year, that means that you get taxed one rate for your income of $250,000 and then a 3% higher rate for your income that is over $250,000. So if you make $255,000, you will get taxed 3% more on $5,000, not on $255,000. So stop trying to figure out how to make less than $250,001 a year.

Now that we've covered that and already 20% of you have stopped going galt, let's talk about another side of this very complicated polyhedron - I want to talk about patriotism. The reason I want to talk about patriotism is because apparently those of you going galt have very loose definitions of patriotism, namely that if we're following you, you are patriotic, and if we disagree with you, then you're going to shove off and start a new country. That's not patriotism, and I'm pretty sure that Democrats stuck around for a couple of years while your boy Bush played War with our Tonka toys in the Middle Eastern sandbox.

I'll tell you something else, how much of that 3% that you are going to get taxed do you think is going to go to socialized medicine and other social programs instead of trying to pay down a very expensive war that we've carried on now for a seven years?

Here's the deal. You are not going to leave the country because;
1. You still hold out hope that your bitching and moaning is somehow going to turn back time on this issue and we'll forget that we need the money in the first place
2. Your special ass isn't going to make any money in a new country since you'll have no industry and no real capital as you're not really going to get a really good trade value with U.S. Currency then.
3. Your CPA will find some more loopholes for you and you'll end up not really paying much more anyway.

Finally, I would like to say something to Representative John Campbell (R-California) who posted a delightful little plea on The Hill Blog and Townhall.com begging that Obama reconsider the 3% increase in income tax:

I'm not going to worry about the potential collapse of the world because of a slight increase on income taxes. Your friends are not going to disappear off of the face of the planet, we're not going to see a mass exodus of people making over $250,000 and they are not nearly ready to commit to leaving this country, nor are they going to fold their businesses in revolt. They are going to continue to make money and building industry and providing jobs because they can't really do it anywhere else (and certainly not as well as here). Let's cut the end-of-the-world, fear-mongering rhetoric and let's start talking about solutions.

Tomorrow, EFCA and what it's potential pros and cons may be...

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Today's Suggested Reading
"Don't Think of an Elephant"
George Lakoff
Summary Blurb: "...much of the success of the Republican Party can be attributed to a persistent ability to control the language of key issues and thus position themselves in favorable terms to voters. While Democrats may have valid arguments, Lakoff points out they are destined to lose when they and the news media accept such nomenclature as "pro-life," "tax relief," and "family values," since to argue against such inherently positive terminology necessarily casts the arguer in a negative light."
http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Think-Elephant-Debate-Progressives/dp/1931498717/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236646413&sr=8-1