'Employee Free Choice Act' is NO real choice for Employees

EFCA Negatively Affects Employees' Rights...

The so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), or “card check” legislation jeopardizes employee privacy rights by doing away with important protections contained in the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). It increases the chances for any business to be unionized without employees being given the chance to understand the implications of that action.  It allows unions to achieve recognition solely through the card check process, under which union organizers can use high-pressure tactics or coercion to collect signatures of employees on authorization cards and present them as representing the true intent of the workers.

Certain members of Congress have been working with organized labor to get this legislation passed immediately, and it could become law soon.  As a citizen of Florida, it is critical that you are aware of how this bill will dangerously impact your workplace and your rights as an employee.

The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) currently provides that if a labor organization seeks a collective bargaining agreement with a business, then signatures must be retrieved from at least thirty percent of the workers.  If the signature requirement is met, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) holds a supervised secret ballot election, and a majority of the vote is required in order for a union to be certified by the NLRB. 

Right now, employees can vote by secret ballot process if they want their workplace unionized – a process that guarantees privacy. The NLRB has strict procedures to ensure fair private ballot elections, free of employer or union coercion. An NLRB agent is present and oversees the entire voting process and ensures that neither the employer nor the union can determine how an individual employee votes. Current law protects employees from coercion, intimidation or harassment when they decide whether to join a union. Current NLRB procedures also lead to swift and fair elections. Most elections are held within 56 days, and labor unions prevail approximately 55 percent of the time.

- The EFCA would take away an employee’s access to a federally supervised secret ballot when deciding whether to join a union. It would replace the secret ballot with a “card check” system that allows a union to organize if a majority of employees simply sign a card. Under this system, employees’ signatures are made public to their employer, union organizers and co-workers.

- The card check provision increases the potential for intimidation, coercion and harassment by allowing unions the opportunity to “persuade” a simple majority of workers into joining their organization. The only way to guarantee worker protection is through the continued use of a federally supervised secret ballot so that personal decisions about joining a union remain private.

- By removing the secret ballot election, workers will NOT have the option to independently decide whether to join a union, a critical decision that is currently allowed in a private voting booth.

- The mandatory mediation provision requires employers to negotiate critical terms of a union contract in a very limited amount of time if no bargaining agreement is reached.

- Another provision forces binding arbitration if an agreement is not reached within 30 days, and the parties are stuck with a contract that cannot be changed for 2 years.