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

The Daily Labor Report today has this interesting item:

At the request of Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the National Labor Relations Board’s inspector general has launched an investigation on whether Member Craig Becker should have recused himself in a case involving St. Barnabas Hospital and Local 1957 of the Service Employees International Union.

… and …

In a June 15 letter to the inspector general, Issa formally requested that Berry investigate whether Becker’s participation in the unfair labor practice case against St. Barnabas “violated his ethics pledge or any other relevant conflict of interest provision.”

Muy interesante.

Be sure to check out this great little article on how card check and it’s continued looming threat create a drag on stocks (which millions of Americans count on for their retirement)

We pointed to this story, which says “card check lives.” A friend of this blog suggested the following movie to accompany (thanks, Ben!)

According to The Washington Examiner’s David Freddoso, Sen. Tom Harkin “is now openly discussing the possibility of passing pro-union legislation after voters have already rendered a verdict on the union-friendly 111th Congress.” Harkin today told The Hill that: “A lot of things can happen in a lame-duck session.”

That means, when people have been booted out of office they can still do a heck of a number on the economy.

Speaking of which …

The new head of the United Auto Workers — those wascally wabits who have done more than their fair share to put the brakes on the domestic auto companies they unionized and helped drive to Bailoutville — he’s not waiting around for the Employee Free Choice Act to try to repeat the union’s record at primarily non-union Toyota. He said “We’re going to pound on Toyota until they recognize the First Amendment right to come into the UAW” …

And what of the First Amendment right to not associate with others upon one’s own choice, especially in the case when a “card check” process may not be the best way of figuring out what the majority prefers?

The Birmingham News isn’t letting up on its watchful eye on the Employee Free Choice Act. The paper’s editors warn today that the bill isn’t dead and goes on to opine:

Big labor has made some mistakes in its frenzy to get politicians to support card check, and that may be what’s behind the renewed effort to get card check in front of Congress before adjournment. Labor targeted Arkansas U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln because Lincoln, a moderate Democrat, opposed card check. She defeated the labor candidate in the June 8 primary, and she’s not likely to be a friend to unions now if she wins in November.

With unions continuing to lose membership, they should be investigating what they’re doing wrong instead of trying to change the rules so drastically that they get an unfair advantage.

As we’ve tried to remind readers, the Employee Free Choice Act isn’t just about card check — it’s also about who gets to decide what wages, work rules, and retirement plan governs when organized labor and employers settle on a contract. EFCA contains a “binding interest arbitration” clause that would allow government-imposed outsiders to set those terms of employment, rather than allowing the normal negotiation process to take place.

What happens in real life when arbitration is forced into the situation? You get terrible financial messes like the ones experienced in Vallejo, California, where citizens seeking to clean up their fiscal morass are attempting to rid themselves of a law that requires the city to go into binding arbitration with public employee unions.

The goal is to pass Measure A, which the San Francisco Chronicle says is “poised to pass.” The paper also explains, “Measure A would eliminate binding arbitration from the city charter, which means the city will no longer be required to adopt contracts ordered by an arbitrator after union talks fail.”

That’s important to understand because when this kind of forced arbitration is in place it removes the need for organized labor representatives to bargain in good faith. Instead, they can simply wait for an outside party — who may know little to nothing about the industry — to throw some slapdash agreement together and call it a day.

Moreover, binding interest arbitration actually harms employees by forcing on them a contract that they may have chosen to “leave” under a different “take it or leave” scenario. They are stuck with a contract they may not even get to vote on.