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

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.

“Employer” sounds too nice, but you can’t complain about “anti-union” CEOs or companies. Those are among the lessons from a document carrying the letterhead of the Service Employees International Union and its trade association, Change for Working Families.

It’s a how-to guide for avoiding the real point of the Employee Free Choice Act and card check … wait, strike that. SEIU’s minions are told not to use the term “card check” (it’s toxic, after all).

Instead, they are instructed to use the old gem “majority sign-up.” And don’t dare mention the secret ballot or private ballot system that currently protects employees — try to bend facts (or avoid them) to describe a “company-dominated system.” And for goodness sake, don’t say “Our union or labor is behind this bill” … that would be too honest! Blame it on “workers” or “working people. Likewise, don’t say EFCA is about making it “easier for unions to organize workers.”

All this may not be surprising, but the extent to which SEIU wants to avoid discussing the union role in EFCA is remarkable. The flyer instructs spokespeople not to discuss the “process or conflict” of organizing and avoid the normal “tone that sounds angry, demagogues CEOs, or over-generalizes about business.” Instead, there’s suggested obfuscatory claptrap.

The document is likely a reflection of organized labor’s plummeting popularity with Americans. See a collection of public opinion polls here. We’re tempted to make a reference to Orwell, but he’s not the one spinning here — that’s SEIU.

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.

Item: Gallup reports that “Americans

Unions have their lowest approval since the esteemed Gallup organization started looking at the issue in 1936. The consequences, according to the firm, could come as organized labor seeks to push the Employee Free Choice Act:

This year’s Gallup update on views toward unions comes in the midst of an economic recession, and in the aftermath of major economic interventions by the U.S. government on behalf of two of the Big Three domestic auto companies.

The update also comes as the Employee Free Choice Act — a proposal to significantly change collective bargaining laws — is still under consideration by Congress. If passed as originally proposed, the bill would most likely make it easier for unions to organize. In fact, proponents of EFCA (who feel the current system is stacked against unions) say that’s the intent. However, those changes may be going against the tide of public opinion, which currently is at historically low ebb for unions.

That’s something worth noting for politicians seeking the counsel of the public. There are plenty of interesting figures, including:

• The percentage saying unions mostly hurt the companies where workers are organized has risen from 39% in 2006 to 46% in the latest poll
• There has been an even larger jump in the percentage saying labor unions mostly hurt the U.S. economy, from 36% in 2006 to 51% today
• Americans’ most negative assessments of unions — as has typically been the case — involve their impact on non-union workers. More than 6 in 10 Americans, up from about half in 2006, say unions mostly hurt non-union workers.

It’s clear: the Employee Free Choice Act’s provision to effectively remove the secret-ballot election process from union organizing isn’t well loved by the public. The latest evidence comes from Rasmussen Reports:

Thirty percent (30%) of Americans say it is fair to form a union without having a secret ballot vote if a majority of a company