EXPOSED: BIG LABOR’S STRATEGY FOR RAMMING THROUGH ANTI-WORKER CARD CHECK
Big Labor and their allies have concocted a plan for the mis-named and politically toxic Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) that would bypass the normal legislative procedures for ensuring a bill gets a fair hearing and reading. According to unnamed senior Democratic aides in today’s Roll Call, “Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is sketching a process for railroading the bill through the floor as quickly as possible to prevent Republicans from rallying a major campaign against it.”
To add insult to injury to the democratic process, a leadership aide was quoted in the same story, “This is not the kind of thing where we could have a long, drawn-out rollout. We’d have to say, ‘Here’s the deal,’ and then get to the floor and get it passed before anyone can mobilize against it.”
The Roll Call story also reiterated Big Labor’s plan to ensure that the anti-worker card check provision remains in the bill. In a recent statement, Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern said that Big Labor expects “a vote on a majority signup [aka card check] provision in the final bill or by amendment in both houses of Congress."
EFCA continues to face serious hurdles and bi-partisan opposition, as the controversial card check and binding interest arbitration provisions remain in the bill. Alternative proposals such as ambush elections and workplace access face similar skepticism because of their harmful impact on workers and small businesses. There is no difference between the anti-worker card check scheme and ambush elections which would penalize small businesses and workers. They both deny workers the opportunity to hear both sides of the debate before a secret ballot election is held. For small employers who are focused on running their businesses, ambush elections deny them the time to ensure that the process is fair. Along with that, allowing professional union organizers on the jobsite is equally as troubling. Current laws already allow employees who support the union to campaign on company property and for paid union organizers to contact workers outside the workplace, such as making visits to an employee’s home. Conversely, employers are not allowed to contact employees during non-work hours.
“Forced card check coupled with the job-killing binding interest arbitration provision suggests that the EFCA still remains politically toxic, despite efforts to produce what appears to be a one-sided ‘compromise,’” said Brian Worth, chairman of the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace. “Apparently ‘compromise’ means whatever Big Labor can get passed notwithstanding their ultimate plan for denying workers secret ballots.”
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