As we pointed out yesterday, there’s plenty of opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act. So who has been pressuring lawmakers to keep it alive in Congress? Mostly, the heads of some of the nation’s largest labor unions. They have a lot riding on EFCA, especially their future as a major force in Washington. Bloomberg News columnist Albert R. Hunt laid it all out recently in The New York Times her... Read more »
Dear Secretary Duncan: The individuals charged with operating and overseeing our nation’s schools bear a tremendous responsibility. Our teachers and principals on the front lines and the public servants in the nation’s capital have been entrusted with shaping and influencing the lives of the next generation. As a parent and a grandparent, I expect these individuals to demonstrate sound judgment a... Read more »
Don’t even think about installing card check in California. Or for that matter, just about anywhere else. States from coast to coast have been actively working to thwart the Employee Free Choice Act or state versions of the bill that’s now sitting in Congress. One of the more recent blows happened in the Golden State. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed – for the fourth time – a card check proposal ... Read more »
Sen. Sherrod Brown is not happy with a “compromise” version of the Employee Free Choice Act – and he’s one of the act’s key negotiators. This says a lot about EFCA’s so-called compromise even though details haven’t been officially announced yet. The Ohio Democrat admitted his dissatisfaction with EFCA – and the bill’s chances – to The Hill recently here: “In an interview with The Hill, Brown said ... Read more »
For an Administration that talks a good game about transparency, recent actions by the U.S. Department of Labor certainly don’t inspire much hope about citizens’ – especially workers’ – right to information. Late last week, the Department issued a modest, six sentence notification to Congress announcing plans to rescind a series of changes made to enhance union disclosure. Issued on a Friday befor... Read more »
Kicking off the countdown of 10 more reasons the so-called Employee Free Choice Act must fail is a look at why – when it comes to jobs and workers’ rights – there can be no compromise. With EFCA seemingly stalled in the Senate, supporters have been suggesting “compromises” to the bill – including dropping its dreaded “card check” provision. But as several observers have pointed out, these “comprom... Read more »
Over the summer, we offered 10 reasons why the Employee Free Choice Act should fail. It was a good list, but incomplete. You see, EFCA has the potential to wreak such havoc on our economy and workers’ rights that it’s not difficult to find yet another 10 reasons why it should fail: 10. Substituting one bad idea for another is not a “compromise.” 9. A key EFCA negotiator is “not happy” with the “co... Read more »
Although the Employee Free Choice Act has (thankfully) not become law yet, some workers – including those in New Hampshire – are already getting a taste of the act’s damaging effects, courtesy of federal Project Labor Agreements. Project Labor Agreements were mostly banned during the Bush administration because of concerns that they drove up federal contracting costs while discriminating against p... Read more »
The perils of the so-called Employee Free Choice Act are well known: it’s a job killer that tramples workers’ rights and threatens small businesses. Equally well known are the motives behind the act: special interest union leaders are spending millions to change the way workers organize, a move that would dramatically increase their size and political clout. But while EFCA watchers have kept their... Read more »
If you want to know why the Employee Free Choice Act slipped into a legislative coma, ask Peter D. Conrad. Conrad wrote an essay for The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel explaining in detail how the act, which began with great promise thanks to presidential support and a Democratic-led Congress, has become mercifully inert for U.S. workers. The reasons range from a strong bipartisan defense of the s... Read more »
