Do you want to join a union? In Barack Obama’s America, you may be forced to. Obama has promised to sign the Employee Free Choice Act, if elected President. What would the Employee Free Choice Act do? Well, take this example.
The Union targets Joe’s employer for unionization. There are 100 employees in the proposed bargaining unit, so under EFCA the union only needs to convince 51 of them to sign authorization cards for the union to be certified as the collective bargaining representative for all 100.
The Union leaders are pretty sophisticated at organizing. After all, it’s what they do. Pretty quickly they identify both the employees most receptive to unionization as well as those most opposed. Joe falls into the latter group so the Union never even attempts to get him to sign a card. In fact, since most of the pro-union employees work a different shift, Joe’s not even aware a union drive is going on.
The Union gets 51 employees to sign cards and gets certified by the NLRB as the collective bargaining representative for all employees — including Joe, who had absolutely no say in whether he wanted a union.
The Union and Joe’s employer begin negotiations but can’t get an agreement within 120 days. Under EFCA, a government-appointed arbitrator then writes the “contract”. The arbitrator puts a union security and dues check-off clause in the “contract”, thereby requiring Joe’s employer to deduct $45 a month from Joe’s paycheck and remit the amount to the union. The arbitrator also orders Joe’s employer to pay a 5% wage increase — an amount that squeezes the employer’s margin. The employer considers lay offs to avoid losses. Joe is near the bottom of the seniority list.
Under EFCA, the arbitrator’s order is binding for two years. Joe and his co-workers can’t reject it. Joe’s company can’t reject it.
Let’s review: Joe had no choice in being represented by the union. He had no choice in paying union dues. He had no choice in accepting the arbitrator’s order that might lead to his lay-off.
Joe concludes that the correct title is the Employee No Choice Act.
How do you like that? I sure don’t.
I’m not sure I understand how this is different from the way teacher’s unions work right now. This is completely consistent with my experiences there (although I would have been thrilled had my monthly dues only been $45). Is the offensive part that the union exists at all, or is it that the dude had no choice about joining?
I don’t find unions offensive. I like voluntary unions and think that they can be helpful in certain industries. I don’t like it when people are forced to join a union. I especially don’t like it when that union forcibly takes dues and provides no benefits.
Under current law, workers in an unorganized company vote by secret ballot. The union has to receive votes from 51% of the affected employees before the union can be formed.
The Employee Free Choice Act is ironically named. It eliminates the secret ballot and forces employees to sign a card if they wish to join the union. Instead of having a single company wide vote, union organizers can collect cards over a period of days and weeks, until they receive enough cards to form a union.
This opens the door for all kinds of coercion and threats against employees who don’t want to join the union. Both management and union agitators would know exactly who does and doesn’t support the union.
Not only that, the bill would force companies to accept whatever deal the mediator handed down — unless they voluntarily reached a deal with the union in the first 120 days. This gives the union a strong incentive to hold out for a deal that’s only good for workers, rather than compromising on a deal that’s good for everybody.