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

There’s a great piece over at LaborUnionReport.com, which has this set up:

Given the above, one would think that a union boss would behappy thrilled to hear that his own union’s  workers signed union authorization cards and want to unionize…right? Further, one would think that said union boss would readily recognize his workers’ union using the card check method…right? After all, the ends do justify the means and with all the money that has been spent, the politicians that have been bought, the lies that have been told, card-check is good…right?

… and then points to this story …

In about a month, 20 secretaries, clerks, and administrators – all employees of one of the city’s most storied unions – will participate in a National Labor Relations Board election to decide whether they want to be represented by a union themselves.

Ironically, their employer, longtime labor leader Henry Nicholas, declined to recognize the bargaining unit when he was presented with signed petition cards from a majority of the workers.

Nicholas is a staunch supporter of a proposed federal law known as “card check,” which would allow unions to organize workplaces without a separate election if a majority of workers sign cards requesting representation.

The Labor Relations Board has scheduled an April 2 election for the employees of District 1199C of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).

The Las Vegas Review-Journal has just about the best roundup of this year’s drive by organized labor to push a radical agenda which includes, of course, card check, Craig Becker’s nomination for the NLRB, and socialized medicine.

The paper’s advice to Big Labor:

Union membership in the private sector fell 10 percent during Mr. Obama’s first year in office, to a historic low of 7.2 percent. A poll last month from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that only 41 percent of those surveyed now have a favorable view of unions, compared with 58 percent in a similar survey in 2007.

It’s up to them, of course, but maybe the AFL-CIO should simply announce it’s going to work next fall for the party that has the best plan to cut government spending, cut taxes and thus allow private employers to create new jobs. Because a change of course seems advisable. And dumping the radical, far-left agenda — which the rank and file have never considered a hill to die for — might be a start.

That would be good advice, but we’re quite confident Big Labor is going in the wrong direction. It is pushing PLA’s, Davis-Bacon Act red tape, and now the unfortunately named “high road” contracting requirements that are the biggest threat to efficient government spending we’ve seen in ages.

There can be no rest until card check is six feet under. That’s the message from Sen. John Thune, who has told a Chamber of Commerce crowd: “We cannot let up. We have to be vigilant. We’ve got to stay on this issue. This is organized labor’s No. 1 priority… We have to defeat this. … We have to be prepared because this could happen on very short notice.”

Indeed.

There’s a fantastic letter to the editor running up in Detroit that discusses the all-too-infrequently discussed binding interest arbitration provision of the Employee Free Choice Act. James Wahlman of Troy writes in:

Parties to first contracts could arbitrate their issues now, but rarely do, because they would be turning over their wages, benefits and working conditions to a third party who probably has little or no expertise in the parties’ business, no practical experience in their operations and, most important, will not have to live with the consequences of the decision.

The very important business of labor relations and bargaining is best left to the parties involved, no matter how imperfect the process may be.

Indeed, even the best-intentioned arbitrator can not know the full business needs of any firm or any single workforce. It’s like asking a general practitioner to do open heart surgery: you could get lucky, but more than likely the patient isn’t going to make it.

To leave an employer and employees in such a position as to have their interests superseded by a government bureaucrat is to totally abdicate business and moral responsibility.

The Workforce Fairness Institute has a fantastic new web video up:

• Biden says B before C: Bank bailouts delayed card check
• Even with ‘card check’ on back burner, Colorado business groups are wary
• From the NYT: “Likewise, it’s increasingly clear that whatever happens with health care, Barack Obama isn’t going to pass all the big-ticket bills (from cap-and-trade to card check to immigration reform) that liberals were hoping would become law in his first four years in office.”