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

You shouldn’t miss widely distributed blogger Warner Todd Huston’s take on the recent Obama Administration decision to change a decades-old rule on how unions are formed in the airline and railroad industries. He warns it’s “Obama’s first stealth EFCA styled rules implementation,” which means it’s a good reminder that the Employee Free Choice Act is still looming.

The good folks of South Carolina are still focusing on the not-yet-dead issue of the Employee Free Choice Act and are considering state-based efforts at guaranteeing the right to an employee’s private ballot election to decide whether to join a union.

The Greenville News has this opinion, which we find it hard to imagine would have very many detractors:

Workers in South Carolina — and around the country, for that matter — deserve the right to decide these important issues behind the protective cloak of the secret ballot. Although all American workers should have the ability to form a labor union, no worker should feel intimidated when making this decision. And the federal government should not strip away workers’ rights to a secret ballot.

That seems pretty fundamental to us, but then again a lot of things seem to have gone haywire lately.

Good to keep this material on peoples’ minds.

There’s a great piece over at LaborUnionReport.com, which has this set up:

Given the above, one would think that a union boss would behappy thrilled to hear that his own union’s  workers signed union authorization cards and want to unionize…right? Further, one would think that said union boss would readily recognize his workers’ union using the card check method…right? After all, the ends do justify the means and with all the money that has been spent, the politicians that have been bought, the lies that have been told, card-check is good…right?

… and then points to this story …

In about a month, 20 secretaries, clerks, and administrators – all employees of one of the city’s most storied unions – will participate in a National Labor Relations Board election to decide whether they want to be represented by a union themselves.

Ironically, their employer, longtime labor leader Henry Nicholas, declined to recognize the bargaining unit when he was presented with signed petition cards from a majority of the workers.

Nicholas is a staunch supporter of a proposed federal law known as “card check,” which would allow unions to organize workplaces without a separate election if a majority of workers sign cards requesting representation.

The Labor Relations Board has scheduled an April 2 election for the employees of District 1199C of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).

Two brief bits of news for you this fine morning.

First, in Nevada, “Group plans petitions on secret ballots, paycheck deductions.”

Meanwhile, “Fearing lack of support, communications union bosses are attempting to rig election employees initiated to throw out unwanted union.”

It never ends, does it?

It wasn’t so long ago, really, that we wrote in an update on goings-on related to the Employee Free Choice and card check that:

Meanwhile, some are still fighting absurd battles. Media Matters for America is still claiming EFCA wouldn’t strip the right to a secret ballot for working Americans. We’ve explained that canard again and again, but Media Matters either chooses to mislead readers or simply can’t read themselves.

We had hoped that our response would have helped correct the matter, though it seems our faith was misplaced. Media Matters is back to its old tricks, leaving readers with the false impression that card check would simply be an option under EFCA — which is not true.

Sing along, class: EFCA effectively eliminates secret ballots.

Can Media Matters read? Or does it fail to read about the subject before it writes? Or does it knowingly mislead readers?

Indeed, media does matter for America — but only when it’s honest and informed. Otherwise, it doesn’t matter much at all.

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.