Should You Care About The Employee Free Choice Act?

For our first “Guest Post” Friday, this post was contributed by Scott G. Wolfe, Jr., of Wolfe Law Group. Wolfe Law Group is a construction law practice with offices in Seattle, WA and New Orleans, LA. The firm publishes the Construction Law Monitor, a blog that provides insight and commentary on construction law issues in Louisiana and Washington.

The results are in: The Employee Free Choice Act is controversial.

In the red corner is the Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc., the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a host of other “pro-business” organizations.

In the blue corner is the AFL-CIO, American Rights at Work, and a host of other “pro-labor” organizations.

The opponents of the bill cry that its opposed by a majority of Americans, invades privacy and destroys private enterprise. Proponents, of course, claim support by a majority of Americans, and argue that the bill is required to save working families.

President Bush had promised to veto the bill, if it reached his desk. President Obama all but promises to sign it.

The Democrats have control of the Congress and Senate, the AFL-CIO is running a television ad campaign to gather support, and the bill is making its way to the house and senate floors. With both sides preparing their arguments, that match is on…and the construction industry promises to be one of the most affected.

What IS the Employee Free Choice Act?
Okay, you’ve heard the talk about the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) – but what in the world is it?

Speaking broadly, the proposed legislation calls for three major changes to the National Labor Relations Act:

1. Eliminating the mandatory secret ballot election now used to determine whether workers support unionization. Replacing it with a “card check” process, requiring an employer to recognize a union when a majority of employees have signed union authorization cards;
2. Subject the parties (Employer and Union) to mandatory arbitration if they cannot decide on contract terms within 90 days;
3. Increase the legal and economic penalties against Employers for Violations of the Act.

A good summary of the EFCA can be found at the EFCA Report, published by McKenna, Long, Aldridge, LLP.

How Could It Impact the Construction Industry?
The Delaware Employment Law Blog warns that construction-industry employers should be aware of proposed legislation because it could be a “silent killer.”

Why?

The long-unchanged law currently requires employers to choose between recognizing the union and a secret-ballot election if more than 50% of employees in a bargaining unit sign a union authorization card.If passed, the EFCA would change this procedure entirely. Employers would have to recognize the labor union immediately if more than half of the workforce signs union cards. And, to make it worse, there’s not much an employer can do about it. Union campaigns can be fully underway before the employer even learns about it.

Dave Seitter of the Midwest Construction Law Blog weighs in on the EFCA’s impact on construction businesses as well:

The untold implications of eliminating the secret ballot election are many, and are derived from the protections crafted under the NLRA over the last half-century. Most importantly, employees will be denied access to the normal pre-election debate that shapes informed decision-making, and employers will lose the opportunity to present an alternative point of view.

This radical change will also erode employees’ free choice. Importantly, there are currently no restrictions in the EFCA on the time period during which labor organizations can collect authorization cards. A union that collects a single card each week from a workforce totaling 200 employees could potentially acquire cards from the majority of the workforce over the course of two long years.

Dave Seitter’s commentary on the EFCA are very informative, and he speaks in detail about the bill’s most controversial changes.

Resources To Persuade You
Can’t make up your mind about the Employee Free Choice Act? The web is riddled with resources to inform you about both sides of the debate.

Resources of Proponents of the Bill:

• AFL-CIO
• President Barak Obama
• American Rights at Work
• ACORN

Resources of Opponents of the Bill:

• UnionFacts.Com
• Associated General Contractors of America
• The Heritage Foundation
• U.S. Chamber of Commerce
• ShopFloor.Org
• American Builders and Contractors