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

Employee Free Choice Act: “Binding Arbitration, a Radical Shift”

Admin — Tue, 04 May 2010 02:28:11 +0000

Shopfloor.org’s Carter Wood points readers to an important item regarding the binding arbitration provision of the comically misnamed Employee Free Choice Act.

Of particular note should be one attorney’s reminder of a 1970 law involving the National Labor Relations Board:

Allowing the Board to compel agreement when the parties themselves are unable to agree would violate the fundamental premise on which the Act is based

Employee Free Choice Act: Even Without Card Check, It’s Bad

Admin — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 01:41:56 +0000

An avid reader and friend of The Truth About EFCA points us to an alarming story…

A federal judge has ordered Illinois Central Railroad Co. to reinstate a conductor who spent 16 months in federal prison for embezzling union funds (United Transp. Union v. Illinois Central R.R. Co., N.D. Ill., No. 08 CV 4001, 3/16/10) …

Click through for the entire absurdity, Aside from being bothersome, why does it reach to the level of alarming? Simple: It shows how ridiculous an arbitrator’s decision can seem, and the so-called Employee Free Choice Act — even if stripped of the most notorious “card check” provision — carries language that would impose a government arbitrator into the labor-relations process. That spells trouble, and it’s yet another reason EFCA is the wrong track for America.

Employee Free Choice Act: Binding Interest Abdication

Admin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:04:44 +0000

There’s a fantastic letter to the editor running up in Detroit that discusses the all-too-infrequently discussed binding interest arbitration provision of the Employee Free Choice Act. James Wahlman of Troy writes in:

Parties to first contracts could arbitrate their issues now, but rarely do, because they would be turning over their wages, benefits and working conditions to a third party who probably has little or no expertise in the parties’ business, no practical experience in their operations and, most important, will not have to live with the consequences of the decision.

The very important business of labor relations and bargaining is best left to the parties involved, no matter how imperfect the process may be.

Indeed, even the best-intentioned arbitrator can not know the full business needs of any firm or any single workforce. It’s like asking a general practitioner to do open heart surgery: you could get lucky, but more than likely the patient isn’t going to make it.

To leave an employer and employees in such a position as to have their interests superseded by a government bureaucrat is to totally abdicate business and moral responsibility.

Nevadans In No Rush To Gamble on Card Check

Admin — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:11:01 +0000

Interesting news out of our friends at the Workforce Fairness Institute, which has released a new poll examining attitudes of Nevadans about card check and the tragically misnamed Employee Free Choice Act. The poll is of sufficient interest to garner the attention of the Las Vegas Sun, which reports:

The poll showed 57 percent of respondents oppose changing the way unions are organized and 64 percent oppose allowing mandatory arbitration to settle organizational disputes between workers and managers, as is proposed under the bill.

The poll also showed more voters would be less likely to support political candidates who support such changes.

The second figure — the one showing opposition to allowing the government to impose labor contracts on small business — is important because it shows that even if card check were dropped from EFCA, the bill would still be disastrous and unpopular.

Nevadans — well, most of them — know that EFCA is the wrong way to go. Check out this video from the state’s own Sen. John Ensign on why he opposes the Employee Free Choice Act.

So What Will Give Employees The Most Freedom?

Admin — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:40:25 +0000

One of four Democratic politicians hoping to fill the vacant seat left by the late Ted Kennedy has received a glowing personal portrait about his efforts to live up to Kennedy’s legacy, especially with respect to the sadly misnamed Employee Free Choice Act.

The Valley Advocate writes of Mike Capuano:

“I think that actually one of the problems in this country right now is that too few people are organized,” said Capuano, noting that the rise in union membership in the U.S. corresponded with the rise of the middle class

Card Check: It Stinks

Admin — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 17:30:55 +0000

Richard Greeley, a legislator from Massachusetts, says card check doesn’t pass the smell test:

Here

The Future Of Card Check

Admin — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 13:05:10 +0000

The future of the Employee Free Choice Act remains shrouded in mystery as we head back toward the September reconvening of Congress. There is little “news” but plenty of chatter.

Consider this report from The Hill’s Michael O’Brien:

A top labor official said Monday that President Obama and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel have indicated that they will not bring up “card check” legislation until after healthcare reform is done in Congress.

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka, the expected incoming president of the influential union, pledged during a web chat on the liberal blog firedoglake that organized labor would work to pass healthcare reform in order to move onto one of its top priorities, the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).

“The President/and Emanuel have both said they dont intend to bring Employee Free Choice Act up until Health Insurance Reform is done,” Trumka wrote on the blog. “Which gives us an additional reason to do Health Insurance Reform now!”

Meanwhile, over at the Washington Examiner, Brian Johnson writes “there is one provision that labor will never give up: binding arbitration.”

He’s absolutely correct. While unions such as SEIU may want to invest themselves in the “card check” provision to increase the dues-paying membership in the short run, many AFL-CIO unions are dead-set on binding arbitration because it’s the key to getting new employees to prop up failing pension funds.

Johnson concludes on this note:

EFCA-Plus leaves too many questions about arbitrators unanswered while simultaneously giving them unprecedented power. There is no provision that lays out how arbitrators will be chosen, leaving questions about qualifications and bias.

Government is increasing its influence in every part of your life, from what car you can buy to your health insurance. Now they want to dictate to employees and employers the terms of negotiation. Go figure.

Employee Free Choice Act: It’s About Redistribution

Admin — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 16:56:19 +0000

Louisiana news outlet The Advocate has a fair and provocative article on the fight over the Employee Free Choice Act, but we think this intro leaves a bit out:

The debate is one of Washington

“Take It From Michigan, Forced Arbitration Harms”

Admin — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 19:05:59 +0000

Republicans on the House Committee on Education and Labor point us to these words of warning from Michigan’s experience. An editorial from the Detroit News says the state’s pain from binding arbitration ought to be a warning against the Employee Free Choice Act’s binding arbitration provision:

The Devil, Keyser Soze, and Card Check

Admin — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:28:53 +0000

“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” It’s a scheme that worked for the devil, for the speaker of this quote in The Usual Suspects, and the increasingly-toxic card check provision of the Employee Free Choice Act.

First it was the canard that EFCA didn’t eliminate secret ballots. It is just a plain fact: once union organizers collect more than 50 percent of union cards — even if employees were uninformed, under-informed, misinformed, or “nudged” as they signed — the National Labor Relations Board cannot direct an election. It’s a myth that has been busted again and again, but like all great lies it continues on among the darkest corners of the Internet (and a few of our own lesser-hinged commenters).

But now it seems that rumors of card check’s death have been greatly exaggerated for a specific purpose (or several). Our friends at Shopfloor.org have been tracking the mysteriously timed pronouncement of card check’s death, even while Beltway insiders say it’s not so. So herein the latest analysis from Shopfloor:

The flogging of the