Industry Wire

Help TRALA Fight New “Card Check” Push in U.S. Senate

TRALA and its pro-business allies are gearing up to oppose another push to pass card check legislation in the U.S. Senate this coming fall. Pro card-check forces are pushing to have a “compromise” of the Employee Free Choice Act introduced in the U.S. Senate in the near future. While the card check provision eliminating secret ballots may be dropped from the compromise, other onerous provisions of the original EFCA are expected to remain. These provisions include “quickie” elections, union access to the workplace and binding interest arbitration.

Even under a limited or compromise version of the EFCA, union organizers would be able to work around the protections offered by current federal labor laws. More importantly, once a limited version of the EFCA passes in the Senate, the House of Representatives could easily expand the new legislation’s provisions to include all of the original EFCA/card check proposals. Limited proposals could also be amended on the Senate Floor to include broader EFCA provisions.

Under the new version of the EFCA expected to be introduced, non-employee union organizers would be allowed to enter the workplace and solicit support from employees during the workday. In a situation in which a union election is scheduled to take place, the new legislation would provide for “quickie” elections. These provisions would limit the amount of time in which union elections could take place and effectively silence employers throughout the process.

Binding interest arbitration, where federal arbitrators would decide the terms of a contract if the union and employer cannot come to terms of a first contract within 120 days, was a part of the original EFCA and will likely remain a part of the latest version of the bill. This provision would have a government bureaucrat making final decisions about union contracts that must be adhered to by employers, employees and their union representatives.

Please help TRALA in its efforts to educate lawmakers that there is no compromise on card check legislation, especially in the current economy. TRALA is actively lobbying against the card check and any so-called compromise legislation, but Members of Congress need to hear from you. Please visit TRALA’s grassroots website section for new sample letters to Congress and the press in opposition to “compromise” bills that will hurt businesses, job creation and economic growth.