Archive for September, 2009
Card Check and Sen. Kay Hagan: Let’s Talk
Douglas Carlson of Associated Builders and Contractors representing ABC members in North Carolina has sent along a request to Sen. Kay Hagan’s staff to arrange time to talk further about her position on the Employee Free Choice Act.
ABC members and officials are always happy to keep discussing and educating Members of Congress about this important issue.
Builders Report Notes Card-Check-Less Card Check Bill Still A Threat
The Daily Journal of Commerce in Oregon, a builders publication, notes “card-check bill won
Card Check: Think Local?
Having learned that a national audience has no stomach for the Employee Free Choice Act, labor activists are taking heart in the strategy of passing local card check laws.
Again, labor officials seem to miss the message: if they want more people to join their ranks, they need to do a better job of representing employees — not rigging rules to get people in as quickly as possible.
The strategy here seems to be to get as many employees into unions, paying dues, and being influenced by union newsletters that they will pressure local politicians to support a national EFCA. So keep a look out in your neighborhood.
Card Check Confusion Follows Specter Statement
Many have been confused by Sen. Arlen Specter’s recent declaration that the Employee Free Choice Act had seen a compromise hammered out and that said compromise would be passed by the end of the year. Included in those “many” are his fellow Democratic Senators, according to Laura Vecsey:
With his strangely wild prediction about the controversial labor reform bill called the Employee Free Choice Act, the word is that Specter was so off-message that he even floored his own Senate and campaign staff.
Not only did Specter tell a large audience at the AFL-CIO convention in Pittsburgh that Senate negotiators had pounded out a labor reform bill that will please unions, Specter predicted that the Employee Free Choice Act would pass by the end of the year.
The aftermath has seen a rash of Democratic Senate colleagues cry foul on Specter’s assertion — the same Senate colleagues who will decide whether or not to acknowledge Specter’s seniority should he win re-election.
Another Labor Goal Would Add To Card Check Jobs Loss
Investors Business Daily today says one of labor’s top goals — protectionism that prevents more efficiently produced goods and services from being offered to American consumers at attractive prices — will come at a cost of nearly 600,000 jobs.
Just a reminder: A study by Dr. Anne Layne-Farrar estimated that the Employee Free Choice Act would cost an estimated 600,000 jobs in its first year (and as many as up to 5 million in the time period studied).
So the agenda of a few top union bosses will make goods more expensive and jobs more scarce. That is a recipe for economic disaster.
Card Check: Getting Worse?
Well, it — the Employee Free Choice Act — can’t get better until it’s scrapped entirely and would-be labor reformers start again with a better set of goals. The Wall Street Journal this morning focuses on Sen. Arlen Specter’s announced effort to reformulate EFCA. The plan seems to include ambush elections and union access to employer facilities.
The Journal:
The new old “card check,” according to Mr. Specter, also gives unions unprecedented access to the workplace and meetings between employers and employees before a vote to unionize. Last we checked the Constitution, even in the age of Obama private companies haven’t signed away their property rights.
An equally problematic binding arbitration provision stays in. This idea would let a federal arbitrator impose a contract if the employer and a newly organized union aren’t able to agree within three months. In other words, a government-sponsored agent would decide what salaries and benefits management will have to pay its employees. Throw in the expanded access to company property, and this so-called compromise bill may be worse than the original.
It would be a feat, of sorts, to out-do the terrible aspects of the original bill. And, we would like to reiterate that (to our knowledge) employers do still have some rights worth preserving.
PS — Don’t forget that the binding arbitration provision could force newly unionized firms into failing union pension funds, creating immediate and massive new liabilities.
