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

The Wall Street Journal has the latest gossip about the likelihood of a vote on the Employee Free Choice Act this year:

Chances that Congress will vote on a union-organizing bill this year are dimming as lawmakers make health care and appropriations the top priorities.

Some Democratic senators have been trying for months to find a way around the bill’s most contentious provision, the “card check” rule that would let workers to unionize by simply signing up rather than running a secret-ballot vote.

While attempts at a compromise have made headway, less progress has been made on the bill’s other divisive element: imposing a government-appointed arbitrator to set contract terms — including wages and benefits — if companies and newly formed unions can’t agree within 120 days of bargaining.

Frankly, tha’ts pretty much par for the course as rumors ping back and forth from side to side. But the irony of the union-busting, union-raiding, employee-harassing Service Employees International Union claiming to stand up for workers is a bit too rich to let pass:

Members of the Service Employees International Union are expected to deliver petitions signed by 18,000 members to Congress, arguing that card-check should be part of a final bill. SEIU president Andy Stern said having a majority of workers sign cards is “the fairest way for workers to negotiate for better job security and wages, given the intensity of employer harassment and intimidation.”

Given the union’s history, we shudder to think how they collected those signatures.

Lots of minor noises coming out of the world of the Employee Free Choice Act. There’s plenty of sound, tons of fury, and it signifies next to nothing. But a couple things to keep in the back of one’s mind:

• Sen. Harkin downplays likelihood of quick EFCA passage and says “We’re not doing anything right now.”
• Pro-Union Legislation Still Anti-Business, Sen. DeMint Says, Signaling GOP Fight
• SEIU attacks wrong group, then gets the group right but the issue wrong.
• The Truth About EFCA, Pensions & The Failing PBGC

The rumors may be overstated, or maybe not. Today, the New York Times is reporting that the “card check” provision of the Employee Free Choice Act will be dropped from consideration. Here are some more thoughts on the matter:

• Marc Ambinder says “card check is as good as dead”: “A canvass of labor leaders and strategists this morning confirms the diagnosis reached by the New York Times: there is not enough support in the Senate to change federal law to allow ‘card check’ elections anytime soon. This is the first time since the start of the fight that labor leaders are conceding in private what has seemed to be apparent in public for a long while.”
• Liz Wolgemuth says Employee Free Choice Without Card Check: “Card Check Lite?”: “Other possible revisions to the bill include granting union organizers access onto business property–a revision the chamber would oppose. Perhaps the group’s biggest beef is that the bill retains a provision that would speed up the often lengthy contract negotiations by allowing either employers or unions to request federal mediators if agreement hasn’t been reached within 90 days of bargaining. If the mediators don’t succeed, government-appointed arbitrators would be brought in to decide the contracts. The chamber has argued that arbitrators could force employers into contracts that would threaten their financial positions.”
• Over at the Cato Institute they’re reminding us