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

Glenn Spencer over at Chamberpost.com reports: “Arkansas State AFL-CIO head Alan Hughes misses the mark not once, not twice, but thrice in today’s Texarkana Gazette.”

Ouch! Click through to check out the whole story, but we don’t want you to miss the conclusion:

…advocates of EFCA have been, and will continue to, pump out misinformation about the bill. EFCA is on hold at least until Congress comes back after the recess. This is no time to let up in educating the public about this job-killing legislation.

Look, informed people can disagree on important political issues. But before one goes shooting off their mouth — or their e-mouth, in the case of the Internet — it would be wise to do some sort of research. Yet proponents of the horrifically misnamed Employee Free Choice Act seem to go out of their way to push the bill while remaining grossly ignorant about the topic and underlying facts.

Case in point: “RickIsThinking” at DailyKos. In a recent diary, titled “The Employee Free Choice Act Should Not Get Watered Down,” Rick wasn’t thinking much when he wrote:

First came the talk of a possible compromise by removing the card check provision — now big business wants to do away with binding arbitration and the penalties it would face in not getting a first contract.

I read today that Representative John Kline, a republican from Minnesota (who I never heard of before today) said, “From my perspective the bill is very bad policy because it takes away the secret ballot.” But that is bullshit, it doesn’t take away the secret ballot at all. How does a politician get quoted in the news blatantly lying and get away with it? With all the deregulation, there is clearly zero regulation on these people.

Ugg. Where to begin? Here’s the quick version:

• Card check does effectively remove the secret ballot — anyone who claims otherwise does so in the face of evidence (namely, you know, the actual language in the bill itself). Will “Rick” read the bill before calling the next person a liar? We hope so, but doubt it.
• Deregulation as a boogeyman again, eh? American businesses, particularly small business, faces an enormous burden in red tape. A rough estimate puts the cost of regulatory compliance at more than $1.7 trillion each year.
• Again, regarding getting a first contract — setting an agreement covering every employee in the unit’s wages, hours, work rules, and benefits takes a while so EFCA’s rush to a contract ought to be troubling to more people. In fact, if one cares about workers, there would be more concern over having a contract imposed upon them by a government bureaucrat.

But there’s a statement — perhaps a small one, but an offensive one nonetheless — that gets our attention. “Rick” writes:

He also said that because the bill imposes binding arbitration and increases penalties on business, from his perspective … it is not a good law. BUT HAS THIS GUY EVER ORGANIZED A UNION? Has this guy ever even worked a day in this life?

Hmm… “Has this guy ever even worked a day in his life?” It sure would be awesome if there were some giant, accessible medium for searching and finding information like a representative’s bio. Since we have mastered the magical technology of the Internet, we popped over to see if indeed Rep. Kline was a shiftless ne’er-do-well and this is what we found:

Although this marks his first elected office, John Kline spent several years in Washington during his 25-year career in the U.S. Marine Corps. He distinguished himself as a helicopter pilot and earned the responsibility of flying Marine One, the President’s personal helicopter. John was also hand-picked to serve as a personal military aide to President Jimmy Carter, and subsequently to President Ronald Reagan. John’s responsibilities during this period included carrying the nuclear “football” – the briefcase containing the nuclear war plans and strike options in case of a national emergency.

During his successful career in the Marines, John served as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam, commanded all Marine aviation forces in Operation Restore Hope in Somalia, and served as the Program Development Officer at Headquarters Marine Corps, where he was responsible for the Program Objective Memorandum – the document used by the U.S. Armed Services to submit budgetary and planning proposals. Among his many medals and awards are four Legion of Merit Medals, a Joint Service Commendation Medal, a Naval Commendation Medal, a Meritorious Service Medal, and the Defense Superior Service Award. He retired from the Marine Corps with the rank of Colonel.

Readers here can judge for themselves whether serving in the Marines for more than two decades, carrying the nuclear football, flying Marine One, and racking up service medals constitutes a “real job.” Apparently this is how Kos readers thank those who serve in uniform and the Capitol.

It’s that same kind of deep thinking that is pushing EFCA and that just might be one reason thinking people oppose it.

OK, that title was borrowed from the book by now-Senator Al Franken. But it’s a good title to kick off what is a sadly continuing discussion on just how far proponents of card check (in the form of the Employee Free Choice Act) will push the bounds of honesty. So far, it appears they will seek or surpass those bounds with vigor.

The latest salvo comes from the Service Employees International Union, which is demanding Nebraska television stations stop airing an anti-EFCA group’s educational advertisement. The union’s lawyers say claims that EFCA will effectively end secret ballots — which it effectively does — are ” demonstrably false.”

Hmm. That’s pretty strong language. That would require, we imagine, a pretty strong factual case and, most likely, a finding by a court. Funny thing, then, is that history shows us courts have specifically found these claims are not false.

So SEIU’s claims of “demonstrably false” claims are themselves “demonstrably false.”

Then there’s the AFL-CIO’s Stuart Acuff going on television and misleading viewers when he said EFCA’s effective destruction of the secret ballot is untrue and that “The Wall Street Journal has said that that is a lie.” Again, “demonstrably false” as the SEIU, which had again stretched the truth. In fact, the newspaper took the rather extraordinary step of writing another editorial just to correct the union and those following its misrepresentations:

These guys must really be desperate. As we’ve written many times, “card check” effectively ends secret-ballot elections because it would allow labor organizers to automatically organize a work site if more than 50% of workers sign an authorization card. Thus our words: “dead letter.”

Obviously, EFCA is crucial to a handful of top union officials, who see billions of dollars in potential revenue by denying employees a private ballot to vote on whether they want to join a union. But we’d think they’d be a little more careful when throwing around loaded terms — because like a grenade with the pin pulled, the explosion can hurt the one throwing the bomb.

We’d be happier if everyone stuck to the truth. Of course, that’s an advantage for opponents of EFCA since the truth about EFCA is pretty powerful.

Unfortunately, the Internet gives power to mistruths and half-truths to spread quickly. The Heritage Foundation takes offense at claims by Media Matters that the Foundation’s video on card check is full of falsehoods. Check out the back and forth and decide for yourself.

Writing this morning in the San Francisco Chronicle, Pacific Research Institute director of research Jason Clemens takes a look at the cold, hard facts on the current system by which employees can choose to join — or not join — a union. Here’s what he finds:

An examination of the NLRB data indicates that over a three-year period the likelihood of an improper firing by an employer during a union drive was 2.7 percent. This is a far cry from the 25 percent figure cited by unions.

Similarly, NLRB data shows a fairly successful ability to hold union votes in a reasonable amount of time. For example, in 2007, 93.9 percent of all elections were completed within 56 days of filing. The notion that employers drag out elections for years is simply not supported by the NLRB data.

His conclusion:

The ongoing debate about the Employee Free Choice Act and labor reform should include more evidence and less rhetoric. The empirical evidence clearly shows that laws such as card check harm investment, curtail job creation and increase unemployment. These are not remedies for what ails the U.S. economy, and indeed would make things much worse.

Yet proponents of the Employee Free Choice Act continue to push the bill’s untenable card check and binding arbitration provisions, usually resorting to:

• The kinds of myths cited by Clemens
• Disgusting stereotypes of business owners as brutes, bullies, and greedy manipulators
• Outright misleading statements about the bill’s effective elimination of secret ballots while calling EFCA opponents liars

It’s the final of those points that might be the most alarming. Serious and well-intentioned people can disagree on policy issues, but it is actually fairly rare — and very galling — to call one’s opponent a “liar” while resting one’s hopes on a foundation of half-truths and mis-truths.

Sure, it’s the job of loud-mouth talk show hosts to get their audience riled up. But sometimes the truth gets totally lost. And that’s where we pick up with Ed Schultz on MSNBC:

The Employee Free Choice act is about, just that, choice. What could be more American than having a choice in the workplace as to whether you`re going to organize or not?

Now, the point being here is that if you get your friends together in the workplace and you decide you want to do collective bargaining, you can do it. Yes, you can do it today. But this would change.

Now, one of the claims that`s being made out there by the antis of the Employee Free Choice Act is that this would take away the right of a secret ballot.

Folks, I`m telling you tonight, that is an absolutely lie.

Taken, in order, is the Truth About EFCA(.com!):

• It’s not about choice if one is trying to quell two-sided debate and kill the period of contemplation
• Yes, current law does allow workers to bargain collectively, so why go to the extreme of curtailing employee rights?
• And, again, EFCA does effectively eliminate secret ballots … that’s not a lie, it’s a practical fact

It’s unfortunate that those carrying water for organized labor continue to lean on mis-truths while managing to call everyone else a liar.

Click here for the video of Schultz’s misleading rant.