Employee Free Choice Act- Who Will Run Your Business?
The Employee Free Choice Act
(EFCA and also called the "card check" bill)
is watershed legislation that will change the face of union representation
and likely expand the number of employees represented by a collective
bargaining agreement. Think your workplace is immune to union
representation? Don't stop reading yet. This is the time to begin
assessing and preparing your workforce and management team before a third party
makes that call for you. If you haven't taken an employee opinion survey
in the last year, it may be time.
Under the proposed legislation, employers will be forced to recognize and
bargain with a union who produces signed union authorization cards from at
least 51% of its employees in a designated bargaining unit. Unlike the
current law, which requires the union to collect signed authorization cards
from at least 30% of the proposed bargaining unit before requiring a secret
ballot election, the bills submitted to the House and Senate will allow
automatic union representation if a majority of the employees in the
bargaining unit have signed authorization cards. Currently,
the federal law allows a campaign period where both the employer and union
can give their reasons on why employees should vote for or against union
representation. If the EFCA is passed employers will not have a chance to
give their side of the story or show employees what the benefits of a non-union
shop are.
In addition, the EFCA will appoint a panel of federal arbitrators to set out
union contract provisions if a collective bargaining agreement is not reached
within 120 days.
We work with union and non-union clients. Granted, some employers and employees
need a third party to assist in communication and determining conditions of
employment. However, we believe both sides should have a fair
opportunity to discuss the pros and cons of union representation with
employees before a secret ballot election is held.
We encourage you to take swift action
to let your legislators know how you feel about the EFCA. The California
Chamber of Commerce has prepared a sample letter opposing this
legislation. It's quite easy to use the sample letter and have
it emailed to Senators Boxer and Feinstein, along with your