Employee Free Choice Act
The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) would amend the National
Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to allow for public card-check campaigns
during union organizing drives.
Currently, the NLRA requires a government-supervised secret ballot election to recognize a union as a collective bargaining unit once the union has collected authorization cards signed by 30% of the employees. An employer may also choose to recognize the union based on presentation of a majority of employee-signed union authorization cards. EFCA seeks to amend the NLRA adding language that requires an employer, and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), to immediately recognize the results of a card-check campaign, without a secret ballot election, if a majority of employees have signed a union authorization card.
EFCA also mandates time frames for the beginning and conclusion of union contract negotiations. If, after 90 days, no agreement has been reached, either side may request mediation from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS). If the FMCS cannot broker an agreement within 30 days the negotiations would be referred to a federal arbitration board whose decision would be binding upon both parties for a period of 2 years. Effectively, the federal government would be setting the terms of labor for a private company.
The Employee Free Choice Act was passed by the full U.S. House of Representatives in March 2007 by a vote of 241-185. The Senate took up floor consideration of EFCA in June 2007, but failed to pass the bill after it failed (51-48) to reach the 60 votes necessary to end debate.
Status of Legislation: The House (H.R. 1409) and Senate (S. 560) bill introduced on March 10, 2009. The House bill was introduced with 223 original cosponsors, down from the 233 that signed when the bill was introduced in 2007. The Senate bill was introduced with 40 cosponsors, down from 46 in 2007. In recent weeks House leadership has hinted that they want the Senate, where EFCA failed in 2007, to take action and vote first since the bill is expected to easily pass in the House.
Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Representative John Kline (R-MN) have introduced the Secret Ballot Protection Act, which would "ensure the right of employees to a secret-ballot election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board." The Senate version (S. 478) currently has 19 cosponsors and the House version (H.R. 1176) has 109.
Currently, the NLRA requires a government-supervised secret ballot election to recognize a union as a collective bargaining unit once the union has collected authorization cards signed by 30% of the employees. An employer may also choose to recognize the union based on presentation of a majority of employee-signed union authorization cards. EFCA seeks to amend the NLRA adding language that requires an employer, and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), to immediately recognize the results of a card-check campaign, without a secret ballot election, if a majority of employees have signed a union authorization card.
EFCA also mandates time frames for the beginning and conclusion of union contract negotiations. If, after 90 days, no agreement has been reached, either side may request mediation from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS). If the FMCS cannot broker an agreement within 30 days the negotiations would be referred to a federal arbitration board whose decision would be binding upon both parties for a period of 2 years. Effectively, the federal government would be setting the terms of labor for a private company.
The Employee Free Choice Act was passed by the full U.S. House of Representatives in March 2007 by a vote of 241-185. The Senate took up floor consideration of EFCA in June 2007, but failed to pass the bill after it failed (51-48) to reach the 60 votes necessary to end debate.
Status of Legislation: The House (H.R. 1409) and Senate (S. 560) bill introduced on March 10, 2009. The House bill was introduced with 223 original cosponsors, down from the 233 that signed when the bill was introduced in 2007. The Senate bill was introduced with 40 cosponsors, down from 46 in 2007. In recent weeks House leadership has hinted that they want the Senate, where EFCA failed in 2007, to take action and vote first since the bill is expected to easily pass in the House.
Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Representative John Kline (R-MN) have introduced the Secret Ballot Protection Act, which would "ensure the right of employees to a secret-ballot election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board." The Senate version (S. 478) currently has 19 cosponsors and the House version (H.R. 1176) has 109.
News
Jul 26, 2010
St. Louis Post-Dispatch Matthew Hathaway column (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Matthew Hathaway Jul. 26, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- On Saturday, I updated a few recent Savvy Consumer columns. Because of space limitations, one of those updates landed on the cutting-room floor. Here it is. On March 28, I wrote about how new Federal Reserve...
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