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

That must be the explanation for AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka’s proclamation today at the National Press Club that “I think you’ll see the Employee Free Choice Act pass in the first quarter of 2010.”

Wait, What’s that?, you say. Card check is wildly unpopular and an increasing number of politicians know it. Too true! Which makes this statement seem more of a last-gasp hope than reality. Will the AFL-CIO’s top executives and their allies push EFCA with everything they have? You bet. Will they cajole, twist arms, make threats? You can make your own bet.

But however you bet on those issues, there’s a sure thing: Trumka’s off-base when he says of EFCA that “You’ll have it have some real effect. We’ll start creating and making new jobs in this country again.”

As legendary college football announcer Keith Jackson would say, Whoa Nellie! Card check has been estimated to kill anywhere from 600,000 to 5 million jobs. Even if one wanted to quibble with that estimate, there’s really no economically sensible argument for claiming that EFCA or EFCA II or EFCA Lite or EFCA: The Grand Compromise (On Workers Rights) would actually create jobs. It would make it more expensive to hire employees, making it less likely an employer would do so.

Of course, avid followers will know that labor allies are urging passage of EFCA to “energize the union apparatus.” Nothing more.

No, card check didn’t suddenly get more popular. And it didn’t suddenly start creating jobs. And we didn’t even need a press conference to tell you that.

The “Mean Street” column from the Wall Street Journal’s Evan Newmark suggests that the president and his economic team have some tough decisions if they are to make jobs a top priority. As we’ve noted here many times, jobs and the Employee Free Choice Act’s card check provision simply don’t match.

Newmark:

If you pull the plug on the remaining billions of dollars in the stimulus, the nation

The SEIU’s Big Boss man is mad as Hell and he’s not going to take it anymore! Or he’s tired and fed up and wishes those crazy kids would get off his lawn. Frankly, Andy Stern’s position is a little tough to discern from this item by the Financial Times.

First, this on timing for pushing the Employee Free Choice Act, the number-one priority of SEIU’s Stern, who’s a number-one visitor to the White House:

Andy Stern, the powerful head of the Services Employees International Union, will push US senators for a vote on far-reaching reform of labour law in

Kevin Mooney is Checking In over at the American Spectator, where he highlights a theme we frequent here:

For his part, Dunn, the Regent dean, recommends that Republican candidates establish a connection between the concern voters have over jobs and the potential economic fallout from EFCA and other costly pieces of legislation.

“By running on the model of Bob McDonnell, Republicans could have very large pickups in the House, Senate and with governorships,” he said. “So the future is there for the Republican Party and McDonnell is the key to that future.”

Then there’s this response by House Minority Whip Eric Cantor to new job numbers:

Good item from the Alliance for Worker Freedom:

In honor of America

Keith Smith, one of uur colleagues at Shopfloor.org, writes:

Passing card check will not help fix the