"Joining together in a union to bargain for health care, pensions, fair wages and better working conditions is the best opportunity working people have to get ahead...
"But workers who belong to unions earn 28 percent more than nonunion workers. They are 52 percent more likely to have employer-provided health coverage and nearly three times more likely to have guaranteed pensions."
Of course, the specific benefits to union members of quicker contract negotiations and higher penalties for employer non-compliance are obvious: both encourage employers to negotiate with unions in good faith and on a timely basis .
Pros of New "Card Check" Rules
The main benefit to strengthening "card rules" is that workers will be able to more easily unionize, and with far less management interference.
EFCA does not eliminate secret ballot elections. If 30% or more employees sign cards opting to be represented by a specific union, then employees may still request a secret ballot election.
The change is that under EFCA, employees, not employers, call for and set the secret ballot election.
A second significant "card check" change under EFCA is that if more than 50% of employees sign such cards, no election is deemed necessary: the NLRB may certify that labor union as that shop's representative without an election.
Under current law, management can refuse to bargain with a union selected by majority sign-up, even if 100% of employees have requested that union.
The primary objection of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to the Employee Free Choice Act of 2009 is that it could "open up wide swaths of the economy to union organizing, especially small business."
The Chamber accurately observes, "Back in the 1950s, roughly one-third of the workforce was unionized. Today, that number has declined to 12.1 percent,... Card Check has the potential to completely reverse this trend."
Per the Chamber, specific drawbacks include:
- "Card Check" Drawbacks
- "Once 30% of workers have signed cards, the union can petition the Federal National Labor Relations Board to hold a secret ballot election.
- "Card Check allows unions to skip the time, expense - and potential risk of losing - that comes with secret ballot elections. Under Card Check, if union organizers can persuade more than 50% of workers at a facility to sign cards, they win.
- "Under Card Check, a union has no obligation to tell an employer it is launching an organization drive. An employer may not find out an organizing campaign is underway until ordered by the Federal government to start collective bargaining."
- Other Drawbacks
- " The obvious flaw of forcing the complex negotiation of a contract into a compressed time frame.
- "It... brings the Federal government into contract talks, which was never intended under the NLRA.
- "Binding arbitration would mean that both parties are likely to get stuck with a contract they don't like. For an employer, you could be stuck with a contract that it completely incompatible with your cost structure... "
Where It Stands
The battle to pass, or defeat, the Employee Free Choice Act of 2009 will be extraordinarily emotional and hard fought.The battle lines are clearly drawn, with progressive Democrats lining up to firmly support labor unions, and with the vast majority of Republicans supporting the business community by opposing the bill.
In the Middle: Pro-Business Democrats, Working Class Republicans
In the middle of the controversy are moderate, pro-business Democrats, especially the House's Blue Dog Democrats, and Congressional Republicans who hail from working-class "Rust Belt" states as Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania.
Such "Rust Belt" states normally vote Republican, but in 2008, smany, including those three, cast their presidential ballots for Democrat Obama. (See Why Red States Turned Blue in 2008.)
All Sides Agree That EFCA Strengthens Unions
All sides agree that the Employee Free Choice Act of 2009 strenghtens labor unions's ability to organize and bargain with management, and takes away some of management's upper-hand advantages under current laws.
The real question for both sides of this contentious issue is not found in the details of EFCA legislation.
Rather, The real question is this: Should labor unions be strenghtened in their ability to negotiate with employers?
At a time when wages of middle-class and lower-income workers have been depressed for a decade or more, and unemployment is rampant, labor unions and their supporters answer an unequivocal YES.
At a time when most business have been hurt by the weak U.S. economy, the business community and its supports answer an unequivocal NO.
Under a Democratic-led Congress with significant Democratic majorities, and led by a Democratic administration headed by a President who was strongly supported by labor in his White House campaign... the chances have never been better for passage of the EFCA bill introduced in Congress in March 2009.
Said then-Sen. Barack Obama to the Chicago Tribune in March 2007, "We will pass the Employee Free Choice Act. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when."
But regardless of labor's enthusiasm and progressive optimism, passage of the Employee Free Choice Act of 2009 is far from assured.
