Democrats Introduce Card Check: 600,000 Jobs Nationwide Now at Risk
Today, March 10th, Sen. Harkin and Rep. Miller introduced the mis-named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). Not only will this take away workers rights to a private ballot, it will crush businesses by forcing binding arbitration and force workers into failing defined benefit pension plans.
AWF issued this press release in response to EFCA's introduction.
Recent articles surrounding the Employee Free Choice Act have focused on it's likelyhood of passing the Senate. A recent statement by the AFL-CIO legislative director Bill Sammuel tells reporters that the unions have the votes needed to pass card check. However, we at the Alliance for Worker Freedom disagree.
A recent study shows that 600,000 jobs could be lost as a result of passing EFCA.
New polling indications that 74% of rank-and-file union workers oppose EFCA.
Yet Obama thinks this is good for the economy?
We issued this press release in response to the union assertions that they have enough votes to pass card check. However, on mere mention of the bill being introduced on Monday, the markets have already begun to fall. What does the Obama-Pelosi-Reid Troika think will happen once it gets introduced?
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: John Kartch
10 MARCH 2009
202-785-0266
Democrats Introduce Card Check: 600,000 Jobs Nationwide Now at Risk
Rep. Miller (D-Calif.) & Sen. Harkin (D-Iowa) introduce anti-worker legislation
Washington, D.C. — Today, union-backed members Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Mass.) have introduced the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). This legislation will take away a worker’s right to a private ballot election when voting on union representation.
According to AWF executive director Brian Johnson, “state right to work laws will have little saving grace for state economies if the right to a federally-supervised union election is replaced with an ad-hoc ‘card check’ scheme.”
The EFCA will eliminate a worker’s right to a federally-supervised private ballot election. Instead, secret ballots will be replaced by a kind of open-air petition known as a “card check.” Under this system, workers would lose their right to privacy. Employers, union organizers, and co-workers would all know whether individual workers each vote for or against unionization.
Additionally, a recent study from The Alliance to Save Main Street Jobs estimates that the effects of the EFCA and card check will cost 600,000 American jobs in 2010 alone.
If EFCA passes, Johnson describes how this scenario will play out: “If EFCA becomes law and more and more companies in a given state become unionized through card check intimidation, the cost of operation will inevitably rise. This leads to increased prices for consumers, and as these effects spread, states will experience even more serious economic down-turns. In situations like this, new businesses will be discouraged from opening operations even in right to work states.”
Johnson contends that state “right to work laws” protect the individual from being forced to pay union dues as a condition of employment. However, he maintains that if local industries succumb to unionization as a result of EFCA, the entire state and all the employees in that state suffer.
To combat EFCA, the Alliance for Worker Freedom is working with hundreds of legislators in dozens of states to introduce and pass anti-EFCA resolutions that instruct their federal delegation to oppose cloture and passage of EFCA. Their hope is that these efforts will send a message to their federal representatives to oppose this bill. Visit www.workerfreedom.org for more information.
