The EFCA Battle is Joined

Unions and allies are fighting the anti-Employee Free Choice Act “Meltdown Lobby” with an IRS complaint and grassroots campaigns.

By Art Levine

Republican leaders and their conservative big business allies, including the Chamber of Commerce, have gone after workers' rights with a new set of misleading attacks targeting the pro-union Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). There's no legislative gambit, brazen lie, propaganda campaign or skewed data--all in [RETURN TO ARTICLE]

  • Reader Comments

     Page 1 of 1 pages

    News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo

    A Libertarian Alternative to the EFCA

    by Dan Clore

    The EFCA (Employee Freedom of Choice Act) would allow workers to
    immediately unionize a workplace where 50+% of the workers have signed
    union cards, a process known as “card check”.

    Employers and their front groups have waged a massive campaign against
    the EFCA in the mass media, claiming that it would eliminate secret
    ballots. This is not true: under the EFCA, while workers would no longer
    be required to hold a secret election after 50+% have signed union
    cards, they can still do so if they want to. But their employers would
    not have the power to require that they do so. They also fail to note
    that employers frequently abuse the election procedure, using it to buy
    time in which to fire workers likely to vote in favor of unionization
    and put other pressure on the workers against unionizing.

    More principled critics, free-market advocates, have objected to the
    EFCA on the grounds that it represents government interference in the
    marketplace. While factually accurate, by itself this ignores the great
    amount of government interference in the market on behalf of employers.
    And that suggests a libertarian alternative to the EFCA.

    continued:

    http://www.nolanchart.com/article6060.html

    United States Posted by Dan Clore on Mar 2, 2009 at 9:41 PM

    While I fully support the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, I would urge organized labor to not put all of it’s eggs in one basket. To put all it’s trust in Congress to suport this vital piece of legislation is kind of like depending on recipients of the employers gifts, campaign contributions, etc to suddenly vote against their master’s interests!

    Instead of putting all of it’s dependence on politicians, organized labor must seriously consider engaging in tactics that helped it gain passage of the Wagner Act back in the 1930’s; militant job actions! Our brethren in France, Italy, S. Korea, Japan they know what key industries to shut down when their government does not respond to their needs! Workers in the U.S. should learn from this. Solidarity Day III should become a reality as well as select labor stoppages in the rail, airline, longshore and other vital industries. Congress and the bosses understand our needs only when we get in their face and hurt their pocketbooks!

    United States Posted by Chicano Wobbly on Mar 5, 2009 at 11:01 AM
     Page 1 of 1 pages

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