Employee Free Choice Act - A Danger for Employers.

By: Russell Thomas Click author's name for more of his/her articles

One of the most disturbing pieces of legislation vigorously supported by President Obama and most Democrats in Congress is the so-called Employees Free Choice Act (EFCA). The title of the legislation is misleading, because far from protecting worker-free choice, it would deprive employees of a secret ballot election to decide whether employees wish to be represented by a union.

EFCA would amend Federal labor law to require the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to certify a union as the representative of employees if a majority of employees sign valid union-authorization cards. At the same time, EFCA would preserve existing law by allowing unions to continue to request a secret ballot election once 30% of the workers had signed union-authorization cards.

Another troublesome feature of the proposed legislation is the procedure for what is commonly known as interest arbitration. Once a union is certified as the collective bargaining representative and contract negotiations begin, if there is no agreement after 90 days, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, a Federal agency, gets involved. If there is no agreement after 30 days, then the terms of the collective bargaining agreement will be dictated by an arbitrator. In other words, an arbitrator would set wage rates, benefits, and other policies for the employer.

The proposed legislation would amend current law by providing triple back pay awards to employees who are unlawfully discharged or discriminated against while involved in union activities during a union organizing campaign or in the period leading up to a first collective bargaining agreement. In addition, an employer could be fined as much as $20,000 for each violation of the law if an employer is found to have willfully or repeatedly violated employees' rights during an organizing campaign or during collective bargaining for an initial agreement.

The impact of this pro-union legislation on companies which wish to remain union-free is obvious. It is not too early for all employers to become involved in efforts through trade associations and by direct contact with congressional representatives to prevent passage of this bill.

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About The Author: Get more of Russell Thomas' articles regarding the Employee Free Choice Act as well as other Employee and Union articles.