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

My company has been operating for more than sixty years — six decades — to build the American dream. We have been named America’s top concrete construction firm in four of the last five years. So take it seriously when I warn: The Employee Free Choice Act could kill my company, and many like it.

EFCA, known by many as the “card check” bill is an absolute abomination. Its card check provision would allow union organizers to harass thousands of my company’s employees. Its “binding arbitration” provision would substitute the judgment of a government-imposed busybody for decades of practical know-how developed during the building of a successful company within the free enterprise system. That’s why this fight is personal for me, my family, and thousands of our employees.

The fallout from EFCA could be severe. From a business perspective, it would make the already-difficult economy even tougher because the labor market would be much less flexible. And the notion of having the government dictate terms of private contracts is mystifying. But from an employee’s perspective, there is worry that the large economic effect of EFCA will be massive job loss.

That this issue is alive at all is a testament to the fact that workplace issues are complex and arcane. Most people have no daily experience with union organizing laws — and it’s an area that’s still misunderstood by those who do deal with the subject. Many people wrongly believe unions do not have fair access to “pitch” employees on their service. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Organized labor has relied on these misperceptions because it desperately needs to pass EFCA (or some form of it) to usher in millions of new members and their dues dollars. Of course, if a private business like mine asked the government to pass a law virtually forcing people to pay for my service, there would be unstoppable outrage (much as we have seen from citizens and editorial boards who are aware of EFCA). In part, organized labor needs to continue to fund its political operations. A lesser known concern is that many union-run pension funds have run out of sufficient membership to keep the funds solvent and, consequently, unions are seeking ways to get more people “in the door” to stay afloat.

Whatever the reason EFCA is pushed by a special interest, it is not in the interest of working Americans or the free enterprise system. We, and our elected leaders, must continue our promising fight against EFCA and any “compromise” that harms employee rights and the health of our economy.

Brett McMahon is vice president of Miller and Long and a member of Associated Builders and Contractors. His opinions are his own and do not necessarily represent those of ABC.

The proponents of the Employee Free Choice Act are out in force as Congress heads home, and one union ally took the pages of the Kansas City Star this weekend to help explain why she thinks card check — the wide-open process that exposes workers to intimidation and confusion because their final choice is no longer cast in a private ballot — is hunky dory. Megan “Comes From A Place Called” Hope writes:

Why might workers choose a card check over an election? Skeptics might say it

Adding its name to the growing list of newspapers worried about the negative consequences of the Employee Free Choice Act, the Times West Virginian recently warned that the bill could negatively affect the balance between business and labor. It also worried about employees:

Employees deserve the opportunity to gather as much information as they can and make their choice by secret ballot without fear of reprisal from either side, just as they do when they go to the polling place to vote for public officials.

Chalk up another editorial in Congressional Members’ districts as they go home to be heavily lobbied by special interests.

Megan McArdle has an interesting, and troubling, blog post on the massive under-funding of public-employee pensions. But as she declares “Politicians had gotten into the habit of promising generous pensions as a “cheap” giveaway to powerful unions,” it ought to be remembered that there is a massive problem with private funds that are in the same situation. Organized labor needs to get new members to pay for its failing funds, and the Employee Free Choice Act is one way to get those members in the door — and in the troubled pensions

Writing this morning in the San Francisco Chronicle, Pacific Research Institute director of research Jason Clemens takes a look at the cold, hard facts on the current system by which employees can choose to join — or not join — a union. Here’s what he finds:

An examination of the NLRB data indicates that over a three-year period the likelihood of an improper firing by an employer during a union drive was 2.7 percent. This is a far cry from the 25 percent figure cited by unions.

Similarly, NLRB data shows a fairly successful ability to hold union votes in a reasonable amount of time. For example, in 2007, 93.9 percent of all elections were completed within 56 days of filing. The notion that employers drag out elections for years is simply not supported by the NLRB data.

His conclusion:

The ongoing debate about the Employee Free Choice Act and labor reform should include more evidence and less rhetoric. The empirical evidence clearly shows that laws such as card check harm investment, curtail job creation and increase unemployment. These are not remedies for what ails the U.S. economy, and indeed would make things much worse.

Yet proponents of the Employee Free Choice Act continue to push the bill’s untenable card check and binding arbitration provisions, usually resorting to:

• The kinds of myths cited by Clemens
• Disgusting stereotypes of business owners as brutes, bullies, and greedy manipulators
• Outright misleading statements about the bill’s effective elimination of secret ballots while calling EFCA opponents liars

It’s the final of those points that might be the most alarming. Serious and well-intentioned people can disagree on policy issues, but it is actually fairly rare — and very galling — to call one’s opponent a “liar” while resting one’s hopes on a foundation of half-truths and mis-truths.

Despite a steady stream of editorials against the Employee Free Choice Act and recent news that key Senators are backing away from the bill, the fight is definitely not over. Organized labor (through its “American Rights At Work”) has launched a new ad using tired rhetoric portraying business owners as greedy fat-cats. But The Hill notes:

The new ad suggests the fierce battle over the labor bill is not ending despite setbacks for organized labor.

A timely reminder, indeed. With Congress back at home districts, organized labor continues to pressure our elected leaders into a bad law. That means opponents have to stay active and stay loud (especially in the face of continuing half-truths from those who wrongly claim EFCA will increase worker rights).