A couple notable items are up today on the national labor unions' top legislative priority, congressional approval of the wildly misnamed "Employee Free Choice Act" (EFCA), the proposal that would eliminate the decades-long democratic principle of secret ballots in union elections.
First, the Wall Street Journal describes the Wal-Mart company's aggressive and proactive mix of business and politics in meetings with management employees on the issue as well as efforts by the US Chamber and other groups to win hearts and minds on the issue this fall.
Second, in a different vein, Portland attorney Stacey Mark, who chairs Ater Wynne's labor & employment group, posts a discussion of the issue on the firm's Northwest Business Litigation blog. Mark's piece is interesting for its thoughts on how card check plays out in practice, noting Oregon has had some experience with the system in public employment for about a year:
In some organizing efforts under the Oregon law, it was reported that employees who did not want to be represented by the union felt coerced into signing cards. Employees described verbal confrontations with the union during visits to employees’ homes and workplaces. Employees who petitioned for an election have also reported hostile and retaliatory treatment from union representatives and pro-union co-workers, who were aware of the petitioners’ identities because the process was not secret.
Mark's blog post concludes with a section headed "the EFCA is Likely to Become Law." Of course for this prediction to come true, the unions need certain political outcomes this fall, and not just in the presidential race but in the US Senate as well. And that gets back very nicely to the central themes of the WSJ article.
