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

The Associated Press is running an interesting look at the evolving politics of Florida’s Governor and Senate candidate Charlie Crist, who has gone from nominal Republican to … well, seemingly a big fan of Big Labor.

These are not our words but that of the AP, which says Crist has:

Cozied up to labor unions, teachers unions and trial lawyers. Crist asked the AFL-CIO for its endorsement, appearing before the group and telling them he will listen to their arguments in favor of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier for workers to unionize. Republicans oppose it because of a “card check” provision that allows workers to form a union by signing cards instead of holding a secret-ballot vote.

This is rather self-defeating if it’s meant as crass politics, since card check is so unpopular that many seeking elected office this year are highlighting their opposition to it.

Our colleague Keith Smith at Shopfloor has an insightful look at some of the notable cases to be made against the possible electronic ballot that the National Labor Relations Board has shown interest in. Click through to see a surprising name.

* unintentionally offensive title reference here

Democratic hopefuls in this year’s North Carolina election for Senate took the opportunity to debate last night in an attempt to distinguish themselves. Union issues were high on the agenda, including the relative stances of State Sen. Cal Cunningham and Secretary of State Elaine Marshall on whether public employees should be bargaining with the state and, of course, the sadly misnamed Employee Free Choice Act.

The News-Record reports that Marshall didn’t get a question about EFCA and its card check provision but has supported it in the past. It also adds:

And although he supports the Employee Free Choice Act, Cunningham said he doesn

We’ve discussed the (Administration’s) accusation that Big Labor flushed $10 million going after Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln and we have been concerned that union officials have not learned the right lessons.

… And we were right to worry. UAW president Ron Gettelfinger says the fight over union organizing isn’t over. That means that the Employee Free Choice Act is not off the table. So the battle continues, only to waste time and money and focus.

Amid all of the serious problems circling our nation and, in particular, the swamp that is Washington, D.C., you’d be forgiven for not knowing that there’s a fight over something called the DISCLOSE Act, which is actually just a bill right now. Its purpose would be to change the rules for who reports what kind of information

Obviously, any such change needs to account for the vast amount of money pumped into the system by organized labor officials who use their members’ dues money like a political piggy bank. But …

Amaya Tune, a spokeswoman for the AFL-CIO, told Bloomberg this week that “the final bill should treat corporations different than democratic organizations such as unions. We believe the legislation should counter the excessive and disproportionate influence by big business and guarantee effective disclosure of who is paying for what.”

Got that? Unions want to make sure there are different rules for what corporations can say than what they can say. If that reminds readers of anything else important, you might be thinking of the sneaky card check scheme, which is intended to bypass the kind of informed, private voting style of a government-supervised election with a process where many employees only get to hear the union’s side of the story.

DISCLOSE-ure for thee, but not for me seems the be the current union political playbook.

Check out LaborUnionReport’s post at RedState: SEIU