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

Virginia is nearly the definition of a political “swing state.” If you don’t believe us, just check out the truthiness of Wikipedia. It has two Democratic Senators and, until, November, a Democratic Governor. But it’s a business-friendly state, too, and has been recognized as the best state in the union for business by CNBC.

So what should it tell political watchers that a swing state elected its new governor in large part on his opposition to policy proposals like card check (via the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act)? There’s no doubt that Governor-elect Bob McDonnell made card check a key of his campaign.

And now the state’s recently elected Attorney General hints that he still views opposition to card check as a political winner. The Washington Times reports:

In the Republican state senator’s acceptance speech after winning the election in November, he promised to fight for Virginians — even if that meant taking on the federal government on controversial issues such as the union organizing system known as card check.

“Normally there is a fight over a bill in Congress, and if it passes it goes to the president and if he signs that bill, that’s typically the end of the fight,” he said. “But I’ve got news for you. If we see an overreaching bill like card check, the president’s signature won’t be the last fight on that bill.”

Political operatives know that card check is a political loser because it violates Americans’ sense of fair play and defense of free enterprise. One would think that our elected leaders — especially those hoping to get re-elected — would want this off their plate ASAP.

Perhaps that’s why the DC corridors continually echo with whispers of a so-called card check compromise. But any talk of such compromise seems to be little more than empty rumor, because you can’t compromise on something that starts out as bad as EFCA.

As business leaders have been warning for quite some time, “compromise” on the Employee Free Choice Act is going to be hard (if not impossible) to come by because the original bill is so bad. Anything that attacks workplace democracy, imposes government bureaucrats to run small businesses, and kills jobs just isn’t going to be workable with a few tweaks around the edges.

Yet as the public has increasingly decided that EFCA is a no-go, real talks for improving labor law has been a no-show because unions and top Democrats seem to be “compromising” amongst themselves — which is not a real compromise. Which is why this story in today’s The Hill is important:

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is one of a half-dozen senators trying to craft a compromise on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which if passed would make union organizing much easier.

Sen. Brown says he’s corralled some Republicans into talks, though we find it difficult to believe that productive negotiations can be led by the Senate’s most liberal member — one who feels it appropriate to introduce legislation attacking ostensibly unpatriotic employers.

Only when EFCA is totally scrapped can there be productive discussions on addressing labor laws, and all parts of the political spectrum need to be at the table.

The Daily Journal of Commerce in Oregon, a builders publication, notes “card-check bill won’t pass with card check.”

The bottom line: Even without card check, the Employee Free Choice Act is still a terrible bill so if politicians try to mollify unhappy voters by dropping card check but passing the rest of EFCA it’s a no-go.

Check out the video for this Pennsylvanian talking to Sen. Arlen Specter on card check and cap and trade:

Apparently some politicians didn’t like that the public got educated and angry about the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act, so they are trying Card Check 2.0 without time for the public to discuss the issue. Roll Call reports:

As Senate Democrats struggle to hammer out a compromise bill on union organizing, 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, senior Democratic aides said.

If the reforms are good for working Americans, wouldn’t it stand to reason that they are worth taking time to consider and have a public discussion over? Well, consider this quote from Roll Call’s report (behind a login):

“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,” one leadership aide said.

Anything that threatens to impinge upon employees or employers as dramatically as the labor changes envisioned by EFCA’s proponents is, in a word, debatable. Any attempt to rush it would be a disservice to constituents and reflects accordingly on the bill itself.

UPDATE 1 — Steve Forbes says there’s no room for debating this point:

“Our bottom line is that it is nonnegotiable that workers must have a say on the terms of contracts that deal with their wages, benefits and workplace conditions. And it is nonnegotiable that workers have the right to vote via secret ballot and be afforded enough time to make an informed decision about unionization.”

UPDATE 2 — Keith Smith from the National Association of Manufacturers says EFCA cannot be improved.

Ah, it all gets so confusing. First, some politicians said there was enough momentum to pass the anti-democratic Employee Free Choice Act as “payback” for union support during the last elections. Then the secret-ballot-stripping “card check” provision of the bill was called “toxic” and sent EFCA proponents in search of fancy euphemisms (like “majority signup”).

But as rumors of card check’s possible demise have heated up, so have rumors of potential “alternatives” such as ambush elections and mail-in ballots. Ambush elections are unfair to both employers and employees, and evidence out of Missouri this week suggests mail-in ballots may not be a perfect way to protect employees, either.

The Associated Press reports that a Missouri judge has temporarily “blocked the certification of a union election for in-home care providers” after the company alleged flaws in the elections process:

A hearing is set for Aug. 4 on whether to grant a preliminary injunction against certifying the election.

[Judge] Beetem’s order was brought to the attention of The Associated Press on Thursday by an attorney for Integra Healthcare Inc., which filed the lawsuit claiming the election lacked safeguards to ensure the legitimacy of mail-in ballots and wrongly excluded some eligible voters.

Mail-in ballots may be slightly better than card check, but they’re not necessarily as good as the current system. Remember that there have been strong and recent allegations that leading card check proponent SEIU has abused the mail-in ballot process in a fight to prevent many unsatisfied members from departing for a rival union (“Homecare providers reported scores of incidents of voter intimidation, illegal threats, and ballot manipulation by SEIU staff,” according to a press release).

It appears there are many problems with the mail-in ballot notion, as employees are sure to learn the hard way if Congress tries to pass reckless “reform”.