Labor union activity is increasing significantly in the current economic environment, making a piece of proposed legislation more troubling to me than it might have been a year ago. Legislation is pending in the U.S. Congress that will change the way we have governed the formation of labor unions in our country for the last 60 years. The Employee Free Choice Act, which passed in the House of Representatives, would make two significant changes in the National Labor Relations Act. First, it would eliminate the secret ballot. Currently, if 30% of employees sign a card indicating they are interested in forming a union, a secret ballot is held that is overseen by the NLRB. The new legislation would recognize the union if more than 50% of employees signed the card, and would eliminate the voting process. Secondly, once the union is recognized, both parties have 130 days to reach a collective bargaining agreement. If they fail to do so, a federal mediator will be appointed to determine the terms of the contract.
EFCA would eliminate a fundamental staple of democracy in this process: an election. Supporters of the bill contend that under the current law, employers have the opportunity to intimidate employees to vote against the union in an election. What they fail to point out is that election by secret ballot allows all employees to vote their “free choice” without either employer or union knowing what they voted, thanks to the safety of the secret ballot.
In the past, both companies and unions have been known to intimidate or make unsupportable promises. Doing so constitutes an Unfair Labor Practice, and should not be tolerated. But eliminating the right of employees to vote in a secret ballot increases the possibility that unions and other employees may intimidate employees to vote for the union. All employees deserve the opportunity to learn both the company and the union position and then to vote their real free choice – EFCA would greatly diminish this opportunity.
So who wins and who loses if EFCA becomes law? If you are an employee, you lose the ability to listen to what each side has to say and the right to express yourself in a secret vote. If you are an employer, you lose the ability to learn that there are issues that potentially need to be addressed and you forfeit the opportunity to educate your employees on the issues. Unions are the only winners here, as they have the ability to “un-level” the playing field in their favor. Two out of the three constituencies are losers.
Do we need EFCA to help employees who want to unionize do so more easily? Factor this in, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, labor unions in Massachusetts added 80,000 new members in 2008. So tell me again, why do we need this legislation?