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

The Indianapolis Star was kind enough to publish a letter from Associated Builders and Contractors President Kirk Pickerel and ABC Indiana President J.R. Gaylor warning readers about the Employee Free Choice Act:

The merit shop construction work force has never been stronger. More than 84 percent of all workers in the industry have made the decision to use their professional craft skills in an environment that is free from union coercion and intimidation.

John Sweeney, AFL-CIO national president, and Ken Zeller, Indiana State AFL-CIO president, argued in their recent letter (“Workers deserve freedom to join unions”) that the Employee Free Choice Act would “restore workers’ freedom to choose how to form a union and bargain for better lives.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

The Employee Free Choice Act actually deals a double blow to workers by robbing them of the fundamental American right to a secret-ballot election when deciding whether or not to join a union, and allows a federal government arbitrator to dictate the terms of the union contract without a vote by the employees.

Current law requires that both the union and employer bargain in good faith after a union is certified. However, under the proposed act, if both parties have not reached agreement after 120 days, the union can call for mandatory, binding arbitration.

In the end, workers could end up in a union they didn’t vote for, and forced to abide by a contract they didn’t vote on. No secret-ballot election. No vote on a contract. Where is the free choice in that?

“Just 15 people turned out Thursday for a rally in Fort Wayne to support” the Employee Free Choice Act. Hundreds of millions spent by organized labor, and the grassroots is un-enthused, as they should be. As we’ve noted, union members are not particularly fond of the their officials’ plans to strip secret ballots.

Still, this can not be the kind of muscle organized labor was hoping to demonstrated with Congressional Members back in their districts this week.

Former governor and presidential candidate Mitt Romney yesterday warned that the Employee Free Choice Act would “catastrophic for the economy.” Indeed, it could threaten hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of job and, therefore, could provide a very unnecessary drag on economic recovery.

At the same time, the pro-EFCA spin machine has gone back to the beginning to try to persuade the American people that card check really wouldn’t cause intimidation. Indeed, the AFL-CIO has come up with studies showing that in four states where officials have granted public sector employees, there has been little if no intimidation. Of course, public sector and private sector are two entirely different worlds and the studies are basically worthless — but that won’t stop the pro-EFCA machine from using it as grist for the mill.

The Wall Street Journal this morning has a good reminder for those who aren’t drowning in arcane labor policy that the Employee Free Choice Act has a second disgusting provision, one which would force big-government bureaucrats into the role of setting labor contracts through “binding arbitration.”

The Journal notes:

The binding arbitration rule would also strip workers of valuable rights. They would no longer be able to vote on a contract that their unions negotiated with management and submitted back for rank-and-file approval. This will make union leaders less accountable.

Arbitration would also make the difficult job of getting rid of a union harder. Federal law limits the time periods when workers can petition to decertify a union. For new unions, workers can petition if the union has gone a year without securing a contract. Under arbitration, workers could only boot their union at the end of the government-imposed contract. So the bill also provides a form of job protection — for unions, not workers.

The latest from the great Northeast:

Local and state union workers started a six-day tour of Maine on Wednesday morning at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, as part of a national effort to tell leaders in Congress to support the Employee Free Choice Act.

Standing before a mobile billboard featuring Maine workers E.J. Russell and Cecile Martin, the workers called specifically on Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, to back the bill. Neither senator has expressed support for the act.

The event is one of more than 300 actions nationwide organized during the congressional recess by supporters of the bill. The mobile billboard was leaving from Kittery to travel as far as Bangor in the next few days.

The Maine Senators have been great on this issue so far. It’s important to remember this fight is not over and it’s critical to keep in contact with all our elected officials.

Gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell in Virginia has cut a video comparing his position on card check to that of his opponents. Gotta love this! (h/t: Washington Post’s blog)