New EFCA bill unveiled
September 18, 2009 by Jim GiulianoPosted in: Employment law, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views
Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) released a “new and improved” Employee Free Choice Act. Businesses and labor leaders are trying to decide whether it really is new or improved.
Just before President Obama appeared at the AFL-CIO convention in Pittsburgh, Specter promised union officials that by year’s end Congress would pass his new EFCA, and that it would be “totally satisfactory to labor.”
Here’s an outline of Specter’s current bill:
- Dropped from the original bill: the controversial card-check option allowing workers to organize by getting their co-workers to sign pro-union cards, instead of having to hold secret-ballot elections in the workplace.
- Added: A provision limiting the time between organizers’ declaration that they have enough support to call an election and the day of the vote, to reduce the potential for employer intimidation, according to Specter and others bill supporters.
- Organizers would get guaranteed access to workers if employers held mandatory anti-union meetings on company time. And the penalties for employers convicted of breaking labor law rules would be triple what they are now.
- Mandatory “last best offer arbitration” if labor and management can’t decide on a contract. In that type of arbitration, a mediator has to pick one labor’s offer or management’s offer, but can’t “split the difference.” That means neither side can make an unreasonable offer as a bargaining ploy and hope that an arbitrator settles on some half-way measure to make everyone happy.
The bill would need 60 votes to break a filibuster, and Specter predicted that number is reachable, since conservative Democrats have hinted that they’d vote for a bill that didn’t include the card-check provision.
Tags: AFL-CIO, EFCA, Employee Free Choice Act, obama, Specter, union
September 21st, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Does anyone know where the current version (or draft) of this bill can be found? I’d like to review what’s actually in it.
September 21st, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Me too. Thanks.
September 21st, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Ahhhh yes, the bill that American Business really needs in this time of economic trouble, “The employee free choice act”. As if our businesses in this country don’t face enough pressure from other government programs that will raise taxes on them, making operating conditions more difficult. What we really need is to get people organinzed to help increase expenses on business through a organinzed labor campaign.
Does anyone hear that????? I think I hear the boat leaving port, headed to China with the rest of our manufacturing jobs. Does anyone have the phone number for Rosetta Stone, I think I need to learn Chinese!
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:26 am
I agree with Scott. Small business does not need more pressure from the government – Having been thru an organinzing attempt, the small business owner does not have much to say in the process without being threatened by the organizing labor group. Does anyone in govenerment have any common sense?
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:15 am
Does the bill have any stiff penalties for misconduct by the “organizers”? They are always portrayed as just being in it to help workers. Employer intimidation? How about union intimidation? Does that ever get covered by these bills? The Organizer-In-Chief should be pleased this is moving forward with little fanfare to keep it out of the public eye while we debate whether a tax is a tax.
September 23rd, 2009 at 7:32 am
I wish our legislators would put more effort into coming up with laws that would make the US more business friendly than wasting their time working on a bill that is not needed. If labor leaders need something to pacify them, get each of them a nook-nook! It’s simple: Unions add cost to a business and create havoc in trying to establsh team work within an organization. There are enough laws out there to protect employees from those companies who choose to act unethically when dealing with their employee’s, and we do not need third party telling us how to run our business. We already have enough government intervention (FMLA, ADA, etc.) to keep us busy dealing with employees who like to take advantage of the system using the current laws in-place.
September 28th, 2009 at 7:35 am
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c110:1:./temp/~c110oxRgGT::
This is the version that was introduced in the House.
But in order to fully understand what it will change you might need to reference the NLRA.
http://www.nlrb.gov/about_us/overview/national_labor_relations_act.aspx
Also attached is a book that describes my companies 3 year fight against a Union organizing campaign. It’s not a side of the story you get to see too much.
http://www.thedevilatmydoorstep.com/overview.html
September 28th, 2009 at 9:33 am
Arlen Specter. Another good reason for term limits.
September 28th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Thank you Chris for the information about that awesome book about your company’s struggle with that power crazed and corrupt SEIU…..simply outstanding!
Arlen Specter…the best example why we should keep our own health care and not Obamacare.
October 1st, 2009 at 9:37 am
The Democratic Party has to do something to pay off union support over the last elections. Up till now they have gotten nothing for their support. Now, with a fillabuster proof Congress, the bill has come due. It has nothing to do with worker’s needs or rights or making the U.S. more competitive.
As an after thought, as a Pennsylvanian, Spector was always the best Demcrat on our legislative team. The reason he offically became one is well documented. He lost the support of the state party as the party (particularly Central PA) became more conservative. His re-election is not a forgone conclusion even as a Democrat. He could even lose the primary!