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

One of the stated goals of the unfortunately misnamed Employee Free Choice Act is to improve the wages and retirement security of working Americans by “helping” more of them to get into unions without having the chance to vote in a private ballot election.

The Alliance for Worker Freedom today has warned that the “next taxpayer bailout” is “aimed at failing union pension funds” and more specifically:

• Average union pension has resources to cover only 62% of what is owned to participants
• Less than one in every 160 workers is covered by a union pension with the required assets
• In a Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation Rescue, pensioners only get $12k/year
  

The ever-expanding Washington Examiner — the publication that recently announced it has added intellectual heavyweights to its staff and the well-known Weekly Standard to its portfolio — continues to do great work on the link between failing union pension funds and the need for union officials to pass the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act.

In an editorial this morning, the Examiner argues:

Private firms could be required to save underfunded union pension plans even if doing so reduces profits and jeopardizes the retirement savings of non-union workers. That’s the consequence of a binding arbitration provision in a proposal now before Congress. The provision is included in the horribly misnamed Employee Free Choice Act (aka Card Check) and may actually be the primary driving force behind the measure, which is described by labor bosses as their top legislative priority for 2009. Card Check abolishes secret balloting voting for employees in workplace representation elections, and mandates that federal arbitrators impose settlements when a company fails to reach an agreement with a newly recognized union within 120 days.

Card Check would not bar federal arbitrators from forcing companies into union-negotiated multi-employer pension plans, many of which are severely underfunded and staggering under steadily increasing rising liabilities. Pensions for nearly half of the nation’s 20 largest unions are classified as either “endangered” or in “critical” condition due to underfunding, according to federal actuarial reports. Pensions with less than 80 percent of the assets needed to cover present and projected liabilities are considered “endangered,” while those below 65 percent are classified as “critical” under the Pension Protection Act of 2006. The average union pension has resources to cover only 62 percent of what is owed to participants, according to the government-backed Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp. (PBGC). Less than one in 160 workers is presently covered by a properly funded union pension plan. Failed pension plans are bailed out by the PBGC.

But opposition to abolishing the secret ballot in the workplace is growing steadily, forcing Card Check backers to seek a legislative compromise with opponents. But if the compromise includes the mandatory arbitration provision, unions, particularly those with sickly pension plans, will be tempted to resist settling with a company, knowing that federal arbitrators will likely impose a settlement that is more to their liking, according to Ted Phlegar, senior counsel to the Workforce Freedom Initiative. “Unions are pushing this bill because they need members and they need the contributions as many of these funds are underwater. This is one way to save them,” Phlegar said. “In fact, this may have been the goal all along.” In other words, a Card Check compromise that includes mandatory arbitration would give unions that inadequately funded their pension plans a backdoor way to get a bailout, paid for either by the company or the tax payers.

UPDATE: Diana Furchtgott-Roth has this:

On June 22 a court hearing is scheduled to decide whether the Minneapolis Star Tribune, now in bankruptcy, will be allowed to withdraw from the underfunded Central States Teamsters pension plan, which provides pensions to 190 of its full- and part-time drivers. For the sake of the workers, the Star Tribune should be allowed to withdraw.

Saul Anuzis in the Detroit Free Press offers a history lesson and a look forward:

The reason that the great American tradition of making cars in my home state has now gone belly up is due in large part to the irrational and unreasonable demands made by UAW chief Ron Gettelfinger, former UAW chief Frank Garrison, and the union leaders that came before them. And the rest of it lies with the management of the Big 3 who made promises they knew they couldn

Union officials have thrown money around like it’s going out of style — and indeed it may be, as three stories circulating the news point out:

• The Wall Street Journal notes that the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union are both facing much bigger liabilities than in recent years, thanks to their lavish political spending
• A critical new examination finds almost half of the nation’s largest unions have pensions funds that are at “endangered” funding levels, according to a report from the Washington Examiner (which, of course, includes a quote from ABC’s in-house expert, Brett McMahon)
• Newt Gingrich’s article “Once, we would have called it a scandal” … well, frankly, it has so much info that we aren’t going to do it an injustice by recapping — just click thee there immediately.

We wanted to pass along a great article in the Washington Examiner that looks at the significant problem posed by underfunded union pensions — for their members, for union officials, and perhaps for everyone else. Heading to ABC’s own expert, Brett McMahon, the Examiner’s Kevin Mooney reports:

The growing number of local and national union pensions that lack sufficient resources to cover their obligations could threaten the retirement security not just of union members, but also non-union employees if the proposed Employee Free Choice Act (Card Check) becomes law as currently written, McMahon said.

The Card Check legislation includes provisions both to abolish secret ballots in union representation elections in the workplace and to require a binding arbitration process that greatly favors unions, McMahon said.

“It

It’s always nice when the other side of a debate makes your point. For years, opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act have warned that the bill’s “card check” provision to effectively eliminate secret ballots in the unionizing process would open up the process to intimidation (even some very pro-labor folks agree).

But union officials have been adamant that no such thing could occur. They would be shocked –shocked — to find liquor on the premises if a union official or organizer would use circumstances to use coercion to get their way.

But one can only hide from the truth for so long … and that time has expired. As if to prove that union officials will use their leverage in less than ideal ways, Politico.com reports union pension funds are sending threatening letters to American businesses not to oppose EFCA — or support groups like Associated Builders and Contractors (the sponsor of this site).

So, what can we say? We’re proud to oppose EFCA and stand up for employees and the free enterprise system. And we’re thankful that coercion can’t hide its face for long. Hopefully our elected leaders will recognize this episode’s importance and stand firm against efforts to deny secret ballots to working Americans.