thetruthaboutefca.com | The Truth About The Employee Free Choice Act & Card Check

Passage of the Employee Free Choice Act could have serious unintended consequences, according to a new study from Dr. Anne Layne Farrar. The paper, undertaken for the Alliance To Save Main Street Jobs (of which Associated Builders and Contractors is a member) specifically finds that the increased unionization that comes with EFCA’s effective elimination of private ballot elections will harm the economy and cost millions of jobs.

Specifically, the report finds:

• If an additional 3.9 million workers are organized under EFCA (a 3 percentage point increase over 2008), another 1.6 million workers will either lose their jobs or not be able to find new employment (a 1 percentage point increase in the unemployment rate)
• If EFCA results in a 10 percentage point increase in organized workers, up to 5.4 million Americans will become unemployed — a 3.5 percentage point increase in the unemployment rate over current levels
• “The costs [of EFCA] should be carefully weighed against any purported benefits of passing the Act, all of which appear to benefit some groups at the expense of others. There is no coherent theoretical argument that explains how the higher costs, greater legal uncertainty, and expanded government intervention entailed in EFCA will improve overall social welfare.”

We agree. And editorial pages agree. The Tribune-Democrat in Pennsylvania has just published an editorial urging their own Sen. Arlen Specter to oppose EFCA. While the senator currently does not have a stated position, the paper argued:

Specter and others on the card-check bubble may be feeling pressure from union lobbyists who say that making such efforts easier would help balance a weak economy that is shedding jobs.

However, the more likely result is that broader unionization could force some small businesses out of the marketplace, and would force large companies

Tags: Editorials, EFCAnomics