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

Shopfloor has the latest poll showing Ohioans are no fans of the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act. They are in good company. Check out our long list of posts covering polls that show just how unpopular the card check bill is with Americans of just about every stripe.

Well, union officials may seem like the favored group in D.C., but that’s not the case in the rest of the nation, with Pew reporting:

Favorable views of labor unions have plummeted since 2007, amid growing public skepticism about unions’ purpose and power. Currently, 41% say they have a favorable opinion of labor unions while about as many (42%) express an unfavorable opinion. In January 2007, a clear majority (58%) had a favorable view of unions while just 31% had an unfavorable impression.

Some numbers to chew on:

Check here to see a history of polls showing every angle of public dissatisfaction with the Employee Free Choice Act, its anti-democratic card check provision, and its imposition of government arbitrators into private negotiations that could see employees deprived of the right to vote on contract terms.

The latest comes courtesy of our colleagues at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and their poll shows:

• In the poll, 61% of respondents said that EFCA would cause more companies to expand abroad as opposed to creating jobs in America.
• Sixty five percent also said that EFCA should not be attached to a “jobs bill,” but instead be considered separately.
• More than half (54%) of voters surveyed said they would be more likely to oppose a generic candidate who voted in favor of EFCA in 2010.

More info here.

The Wall Street Journal today carries an important story, “AFL-CIO Poll Shows Union Households Boosted Brown.” The gist: union households supported the candidacy of Scott Brown for Senate in this week’s major special election for the Senate, meaning union households oppose large parts of the agenda pushed by organized labor’s top bosses.

The Journal takes a look at what this means for card check:

Signs that unions can’t deliver rank-and-file votes present another challenge for labor leaders trying to salvage their legislative priorities, including a bill that would make it easier for them to organize workers and win initial labor contracts from employers through arbitration. AFL-CIO lobbyist Bill Samuel said the union still holds out hope for the Employee Free Choice Act, which was stalled in the Senate before Mr. Brown’s election.

“We don’t see it being dead,” he said. “We’re obviously reallocating our strategy and the timing,” he said.

Mr. Samuel still expects a vote on the bill to occur this year, he said. “That’s our plan.”

Card check and EFCA have been the “plan” for several years for top labor officials, but the opposition by union households has been there too.

This month new polling showed that 66 percent of union households oppose changing the bargaining process in unionization, which EFCA would do; 51 percent of union households oppose changing the way unions are formed, which EFCA would do; and 77 percent of all voters, as well as 77 percent of union households oppose a government arbitrator having the final say in determining contract terms, which EFCA would do.

This isn’t terribly surprising or new. Polling from early 2009 showed that 85% of union households favor having a federally supervised election as a means to

The Workforce Fairness Institute has a new poll — of union households in Nevada — with some interesting figures:

• 66 percent of union households oppose changing the bargaining process in unionization, which EFCA would do.
• 51 percent of union households oppose changing the way unions are formed, which EFCA would do.
• 77 percent of all voters, as well as 77 percent of union households oppose a government arbitrator having the final say in determining contract terms, which EFCA would do.

Check out the poll over at WFI’s website, and click here to see a history of polling we’ve highlighted.

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?