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

The drumbeat continues: “Support for healthcare and ‘card check’ legislation would weigh on Sen. Michael Bennet’s (D-Colo.) reelection chances, a new poll found Friday.”

That’s the word from The Hill’s Mike O’Brien, who continues:

The Colorado Democrat’s reelection prospects could hinge on two key issues, though: the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) and healthcare reform legislation.

When read a description of EFCA, 66 percent of Coloradans said they’d prefer a candidate who would vote against the union organizing bill, compared to 29 percent who said they would prefer a candidate who supports the ‘card check’ bill.

When read description of key components of the bill, the card check provision and the binding arbitration provision, almost 2/3rds of voters expressed disapproval in the poll, which was commissioned by the anti-EFCA Workforce Fairness Institute and conducted by Public Opinion Strategies.

This is just the latest example of voters clearly signaling their displeasure with EFCA. Virginia‘s gubernatorial victor was incontrovertible evidence, and this year we’ve heard similar tales from Kansas, Nevada, and now Colorado.

When will our elected leaders start listening? When they’re un-elected?

Coloradans don’t like the Employee Free Choice Act — not one bit. That’s the takeaway from a new poll conducted over two weeks in October. But the poll went beyond EFCA as it is written right now, which includes binding interest arbitration and card check, to investigate opinion on potential changes to the bill.

Here are some interesting findings that ought to inform legislators:

A majority of respondents said they favored some clauses that could be added to the bill, such as a provision applying the same increased penalties to union organizers who break workplace unionization rules as are currently applied to companies breaking such rules in the proposed bill, according to results.

But majorities of more than 70 percent opposed other potential additions to the bill, such as a ban on employer meetings to discuss unionization or a requirement that unions be allowed into the workplace to conduct organizing campaigns. Seventy-four percent of Colorado respondents opposed the card-check provision at the center of the bill, the survey said.

The final toll: people only want EFCA if it is not at all EFCA. They want it to be fair and penalize bad behavior, but not enact a per se penalty on employer speech. And, of course, card check is still a massive loser.

Writing for the editorial board of the Daily Camera in Colorado, Erika Stutzman argues:

If a union collects signed cards from more than 50 percent of workers, there can be a forced unionization without the use of secret ballots. That could put undue pressure on workers to vote a certain way. Secret ballots should be protected, and even treasured, by those who want individuals to retain their right to make their own choices.