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

Ron Gidwitz writes in the State Journal-Register (of Illinois):

This bill would cost working men and women their right to a secret ballot. Workers

The Plum Line reports:

This one is very, very bad news for the Employee Free Choice Act: Senator Jim Webb, who was thought by labor to be supportive of the measure, now won

Another good reminder: pro-union people can be very anti-Employee Free Choice Act. Consider this column from the Pittsburg Post-Gazette’s Ruth Ann Dailey:

I remain proud of the union to which I belonged. I have no doubt that it’s had a positive impact on the quality of the Post-Gazette’s products — and on the salaries and benefits its members enjoy. To protect quality and standards of living in an industry that’s in crisis, our Guild works with management in a way I consider noble and far-sighted.

Unreasonable, dishonest and cowardly people can be found in management and labor alike. Any democratic movement worthy of its name should seek to protect the individual from their power.

The “Employee Free Choice Act” will surface again — with the “card check” portion revised or eliminated. But once it survives a Republican filibuster attempt and moves on through the Senate, the utterly undemocratic card check provision can be restored and made the law of the land.

Mr. Specter should be encouraged to continue protecting the rights of the employee — something unions used to stand for.

Astute readers of the Cincinnati Enquirer this weekend will have seen Peter Bronson’s illustrative column on the very real problems for employees in a post-Employee Free Choice Act world. The whole article is worth checking out, but here’s the takeaway:

When union organizers started pestering them at home after work, Cintas workers in Pennsylvania went to court. Five years later, the Supreme Court has announced that the workers won $5 million.

The union invaded their privacy by illegally using license plates to track them down. It was part of Unite Here’s attempt to unionize Cintas – and it’s just a taste of what non-union workers will face if the Senate passes “card check,” the Employee Free Choice Act.

Harry C. Alford, president of the National Black Chamber of Commerce has a powerful article in Roll Call about the threat to minority-owned businesses from Project Labor Agreements and the Employee Free Choice Act. His conclusion:

We believe that enacting EFCA and other pro-union legislation will have a very negative impact on the African-American business community, on African-American employment, and as a result, on our economy as a whole. At a time when we should be focused on greater opportunities and more jobs, voting for EFCA is the wrong choice for the African-American community.

For most political debates, compromise is seen as a positive. But when the bill is as bad as the Employee Free Choice Act, it’s difficult to imagine any compromise possible because “splitting the difference” would still be so bad for employers, employees, and our economy. That’s the message from the Evansville Courier & Press, which notes the evolving position of one Congressman and the issue of compromise:

Although 8th District Rep. Brad Ellsworth, D-Evansville, voted in favor of the Employee Free Choice Act in 2007