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

From Sunday’s Public Opinion in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania:

In response to the Employee Free Choice Act — it can’t be passed. If it does, I can guarantee you there will be millions of people out of work.

I was in a union for 23 years and in that amount of time, it bankrupted four big trucking companies and put at least 5,000 people out of work.

Also, when I went to withdraw my union pension, they didn’t credit me nine-and-a-half years of my 23 years of service, because I lost my withdraw card. Plus, I know some other employees who didn’t get credit for two years up to five years.

With regard to what was published in the paper concerning Jim Martin, I worked there for approximately eight years. I really enjoyed working and he gave us better health benefits, profit sharing, retiring, and actually I made more money there and wasn’t on call 24/7 like I was with those corrupted unions.

So please call your senator and tell him to vote against this bill.

Robert D. Peterson Sr.

Chambersburg

Over at the National Journal, Stuart Taylor Jr. makes a calm, rational case against the Employee Free Choice Act and its negative effects on employees and businesses alike:

More broadly, while employees’ rights to unionize are an essential source of leverage to extract a fair share of the fruits of their labor from profit-maximizing employers, it does not follow that the more unions, the better. Even the best unions often introduce inefficiencies such as the thousands of pages of work rules imposed by the United Auto Workers during its heyday.

The most enlightened employers are those that fend off unionization by giving their employees everything that they could get through a union without raising labor costs so high as to lose the competitive edge and profitability on which their employees’ long-run job security depends.

And the worst economic crisis since the 1930s would be an odd time to shift the balance of power so far in favor of unions as to risk sending such employers the way of General Motors.

Associated Builders and Contractors CEO Kirk Pickerel wrote an op-ed in this morning’s Washington DC Examiner highlighting the problems with the Employee Free Choice Act, including the negative consequences it will have for American jobs:

A recently released study from noted economist Dr. Anne Layne-Farrar found the Employee Free Choice Act will result in “a one percentage point increase in the unemployment rate for every three percentage point increase in workers organized.”

In other words, if the Employee Free Choice Act results in a 10 percent increase in unionization, the unemployment rate would increase by more than three percent. If the Employee Free Choice Act had passed in 2007, the unemployment rate could be a shocking 11.6 percent instead of the 8.1 percent released last week – which is already the highest since 1983.

The impact of the Employee Free Choice Act would be especially disastrous in the construction industry, where the unemployment rate is already over 18 percent.

This morning’s Detroit News carries an important editorial warning against the Employee Free Choice Act — both because it will harm workplace democracy and, ultimately, cost jobs:

But there’s no balance in the card check legislation. It would tip the organizing advantage steeply in favor of labor and deeply involve the federal government in contract negotiations.

Workers would be subject to public pressure from their peers to sign cards, and would have no additional chance to consider their decision. Vote totals in recent organizing elections show a big fall-off in the number of workers who sign cards asking for a vote and the number who actually cast ballots in favor of the union.

Workers deserve the opportunity for a more careful consideration of their decision, and the right to make that choice without broadcasting it to their peers. The bill contains no language governing what the card should look like or how they should read, opening the possibility that some workers will be misled into signing.

The paper adds:

It’s no secret that private companies don’t like to be unionized, for reasons both good and bad, but primarily because it drives up the cost of doing business. Labor costs are a chief consideration when companies decide where to create jobs. This bill will increase the incentive to take jobs, particularly manufacturing jobs, to less costly places.

No wonder Centrist Dems dodge labor bill.

As noted at the right, a recent study (proudly supported by Associated Builders and Contractors and the Alliance to Save Mains Street Jobs) details the unemployment ramifications if Congress passed EFCA. Ed Morrissey today interviewed the study’s author. Watch for yourself!

UPDATE: The Heritage Foundation has a memo out that adds to the concern about job-loss and EFCA’s effects:

The AFL-CIO estimates that passing EFCA would increase union membership rates by at least 5.0 percentage points.[1] Under EFCA at least 7.1 million Americans would be pressured into unions.[2] This would do wonders for union finances, but it would also further devastate labor markets.

The March 2009 Bureau of Labor Statistics “Employment Situation Summary” shows that 651,000 Americans lost their job in the month of February. This brings the total number of unemployed to 12.5 million and the unemployment rate to 8.1 percent. This is the highest rate in over 25 years.

Ironically, there is an ad running on national cable television from one of the Employee Free Choice Act’s (card check) biggest supporters. The ad closes with the line “Because everyone should have the right to work.”

All of this on the heels of an economic impact study released yesterday called “An Empirical Assessment of the Employee Free Choice Act: The Economic Implications” by the Alliance to Save Main Street Jobs. This study finds that if the Employee Free Choice Act were signed into law, meaning workers are stripped of their right to a private ballot and small businesses are forced into mandatory binding arbitration, the result would be “a one percentage point increase in the unemployment rate for every three percentage point increase in workers organized.” One could conclude that if the Employee Free Choice Act results in a 10 percent increase in unionization, the unemployment rate would increase by more than three percent.

Hypothetically, if the EFCA had been passed in 2007 the unemployment rate could now be over 11.5 percent. This means that 5 million more Americans could be looking for their next paycheck because of the Employee Free Choice Act.

The Employee Free Choice Act will not put people “right to work,” but instead the facts clearly state it will put them right out of the job.