Secret Ballot Watch

If you believe its supporters, the Employee Free Choice Act should have been a done deal a long time ago.

With presidential support and Democrats controlling large majorities in both chambers of Congress, it would be easy to assume EFCA was on its way to enactment in the opening days of the 111^th Congress.

But fortunately for American workers, opposition to EFCA is not the purely partisan matter its proponents would have you believe.  As The Economist noted last week in a profile of Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln, even some Democrats are wary about the bill’s effects on the economy:   

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“The Democrats’ plans for energy and labour depend a lot on whether Mrs Lincoln sides with her own party; and she has a habit of bucking it.

“For example, she is one of only a couple of Democrats to oppose the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill the party’s union allies crave more than anything else. They want the power to unionise firms without a secret ballot, simply by persuading a majority of workers to sign a card. Employers fear that union heavies would visit workers at home and pressure them into signing. Arlen Specter, a senator who recently defected to the Democrats, has floated a compromise which would preserve the secret ballot. He thought this would win over Mrs Lincoln, but it didn’t. The bill still says that, if a union and an employer fail quickly to agree on a contract, a government-appointed arbitrator can impose terms. That would be ‘unbelievably difficult for small businesses,’ says Mrs Lincoln. She hears from hospitals in Arkansas worried that, if they have 40 nurses and 21 opt to form a union, they would have only a few weeks to agree on a new contract, despite having no idea what the health-care system will look like next year.”

Article, “Blanche Lincoln's balance,” The Economist, 10.01.09 

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Bipartisan opposition to this anti-worker plan shows what a bad idea the Employee Free Choice Act is in the first place. When members of both parties are united in their opposition to a plan that would kill jobs and deprive workers of their rights, it’s time to kill the bill once and for all.

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