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

Despite the positive signs that elected leaders right now have little appetite for card check and the Employee Free Choice Act, Investors Business Daily reminds readers:

The legislation, which failed in Congress in 2007, was a priority a year ago for the young administration. But the public didn’t like it, and neither did a few Democratic senators. It appeared to be dead.

In reality, though, it’s merely wounded. The unions want card check to be part of a federal jobs bill. Another reason to kill legislation that won’t create or save any meaningful private-sector jobs.

Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus once said of card check legislation: “This is how a civilization disappears.” He may be exaggerating a bit. But he’s not far off.

It would certainly be cynical to include jobs-killing language in jobs legislation.

It won’t, but that’s the very reasonable question from Rep. John Kline — readers of this blog will remember him well.

The setting for the question came at a House hearing at which Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis testified about her ongoing work. The Wall Street Journal had the Kline recap:

Meanwhile, Rep. John Kline (R., Minn.), the senior Republican on the House Education Committee, applauded the Obama administration for taking action to ease unemployment numbers, but criticized the controversial Employee Free Choice Act, which could make it easier for workers to join unions.

“I cannot help but question many of [the president's] proposed policies that seem to run contrary to the goal of job creation and economic certainty,” Mr. Kline said. He later added, “The question remains: how will ‘card check’ create and sustain jobs?”

Those who oppose EFCA have said the legislation could likely stump job growth, business activity and investments.

The truth, of course, is that EFCA will kill jobs and once again assault the free enterprise system. So long as jobs remain high on the administration’s agenda, EFCA should be at the bottom.

Come to think of it, EFCA should always be at the bottom of the agenda. That should simplify things nicely.

The “Mean Street” column from the Wall Street Journal’s Evan Newmark suggests that the president and his economic team have some tough decisions if they are to make jobs a top priority. As we’ve noted here many times, jobs and the Employee Free Choice Act’s card check provision simply don’t match.

Newmark:

If you pull the plug on the remaining billions of dollars in the stimulus, the nation’s governors will hate you. If you drop cap-and-trade legislation, the environmentalists will hate you. If you put the kibosh on employee card-check legislation, the unions will hate you.

But at least, you’ll get job creation. The alternative of course is to stick with Plan A and hope for the best. But the December jobs report is an indication that hope may not be enough.

Jobs, not card check, should be the nation’s number-one priority. Unemployment in the construction sector, for one, is painfully high.

Keith Smith, one of uur colleagues at Shopfloor.org, writes:

Passing card check will not help fix the “jobs crisis.” Despite stating their intentions to assist companies, their support for the card check legislation will not help create or retain jobs. In fact it will do the quite the opposite by promoting adversarial relationships between employers and employees. Labor leaders need to recognize, as many union members and Members of Congress have, that this legislation will cost hundreds of thousands of jobs in America and is not in the best interest of our shared economic future.

Click over for the full context.

See Katie Packer’s article. This has been a building issue (and, of course, is an issue for builders). More card check means fewer jobs.

The Heritage Foundation has released a new document arguing, in part, that uncertainty about the future of business conditions is causing firms to delay or forego hiring of working Americans.

Interesting conclusion:

While layoffs have increased, the larger factor increasing unemployment has been businesses cutting back on investment and entrepreneurs starting fewer companies. Consequently they have created fewer jobs. Increased federal spending will not spur the private-sector investment and risk-taking necessary to create jobs and reduce unemployment. Congress should instead reduce government spending to free up funds for private investment while committing to not passing any measures — such as card-check, cap and trade, or the health care mandates — that would make creating new jobs more expensive.

Many in the construction field are suffering greatly right now, and many employers are forced to reduce hours or cut back on employment.

These policy suggestions, particularly the suggestions of what not to do, certainly sound like the best bets for a healthy economy with job growth.