One would think George McGovern would be a shoo-in as a supporter of the Employee Free Choice Act. In his acceptance speech for the 1972 Democratic presidential nomination, he called for “justice and jobs for all our people” – a vision that supporters of EFCA claim pursuit of today. So it was quite a surprise – especially to the act’s supporters – when the former South Dakota senator came out agai... Read more »
Six months to the day after enactment of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Rep. John Kline (R-MN) – the top Republican on the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee – highlighted America’s continued job losses and plummeting public opinion about the legislation as proof that the nearly trillion dollar federal spending spree has failed to achieve its objectives. “Democrats in Washington... Read more »
With a bill as bad as the Employee Free Choice Act, limiting the list of flaws to a top 10 can be quite a challenge. Still, with apologies to David Letterman, below are the first (but certainly not the last) 10 reasons why the anti-worker card check scheme must fail: 10. Even George McGovern is against it. 9. Have you SEEN the unemployment rate lately? 8. Those clever Canadians could outpace us in... Read more »
A company can’t compete in today’s economy if workers and managers can’t trust each other – and the Employee Free Choice Act will breed that mistrust in the workplace. That’s what Kevin D. Manship says in a letter to The News Herald of Morganton, N.C. Manship is a facility manager of the local branch of Caterpillar Inc., a Fortune 500 company which makes construction and mining equipment, diesel a... Read more »
There’s a lesson to be learned about the Employee Free Choice Act – and it’s not just about what this special interest ploy can do to a weakened economy. The act can stifle education reform as well. Take it from former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. He vetoed a similar proposal in his state a few years ago, but his successor signed it into law. At the time, most saw the new law in economic terms ... Read more »
The closer you look at the Employee Free Choice Act, the worse it becomes. Of course, there is the act’s ability to set aside workers’ right to a secret ballot and expose them to intimidation. There is also the act’s ability to impose forced government contracts and kill jobs in a weakened economy. But John S. Irving, a former general counsel to the National Labor Relations Board, has found yet an... Read more »
Of all the arguments made by proponents of the so-called Employee Free Choice Act, one of the most dubious is the claim that secret ballot elections are rigged against union organizing. After all, secret ballot elections protect the privacy of workers no matter how they plan to vote. If anything, secret ballot elections actually favor unionization in workplaces where workers may wish to form a uni... Read more »
There are plenty of reasons not to enact the job killing, privacy destroying Employee Free Choice Act, but this morning, the U.S. Department of Labor gave us 247,000 more. Those reasons? The 247,000 Americans who lost their jobs in the month of July, bringing the job loss totals since the recession began to 6.7 million and the total number of Americans out of work to 14.5 million. No matter how yo... Read more »
What would you do with $11 million? If you’re anything like organized labor and its supporters of the Employee Free Choice Act, you’d use it to place huge bets on the measure and the rest of your agenda. Sadly, you’d be gambling with the future of the U.S. economy – and betting against workers and their rights. Congressional Quarterly examined Federal Election Commission records, and found that or... Read more »
It looks like Arizona voters will have a chance to decide if workers’ right to a secret ballot is worthy of protection. The state’s Legislature recently voted to offer a referendum in 2010 protecting the right of workers to organize by secret ballot. Lawmakers created the referendum in response to the federal Employee Free Choice Act, currently pending in Congress. The act, among other things, wou... Read more »
