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Not the time to let up on "Card Check"
April 14, 2009

Over the past few weeks, those of us strongly opposed to the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), or “Card Check” legislation, have received some good news. First, on March 24, Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), who many considered the deciding vote on EFCA in the Senate, announced that he would not be supporting the bill. Since that time, Democratic senators Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) have taken similar stances on the legislation, which seriously hurts EFCA’s chances, despite its support in the House.

As a refresher, EFCA is legislation that would revoke an employee's right to a secret ballot election in union organization efforts and impose binding arbitration on employers once their employees were successful in forming a union. Only months ago, the bill appeared on its way to passage given President Obama’s announced position during the campaign. The consensus was it was a “first 100 days” priority (which we’ve now passed). Fortunately for the employer community nationwide, momentum now appears to be on the side of those of us in opposition.

Nonetheless, the employer community needs to keep the pressure on. This is an important time to let our federal elected representatives know that the job creators in the Buffalo Niagara region are opposed to government having power over their relationship with their employees – which EFCA would give.

There has been consistent talk of a possible compromise on the bill – though neither side at this point has broken (and we won’t!) on any of the three principle tenets of the legislation:

• Determine union status based upon signature cards, rather than a secret ballot vote;
• Impose extreme penalties on employers who violate labor law; and
• Mandate binding arbitration should the employer and new union not reach agreement on a contract within 130 days.

It’s not difficult to see how skewed the bill is toward organized labor. Elimination of secret ballot coupled with penalties solely against employers offer union organizers carte blanche in the tactics they can use to secure the very public signature cards in favor of organizing. Binding arbitration would take away any opportunity that employers and newly-unionized employees have to shape their own contract.

So, now is not the time to let up. While the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has targeted specific senators in states far from New York (geographically and philosophically), and it’s not likely that we’ll be changing the minds of our representatives, we need to continue to get the message to them that job creators in the Buffalo Niagara region are opposed to this “game-changing legislation.”

On our website, we’ve posted a letter in opposition to EFCA that you can print onto your company’s letterhead and send to our federal delegation. We urge you – as part of a larger effort spearheaded by the U.S. Chamber – to send these letters this week, while our representatives are home on the spring district work period. It is important for our elected leaders to understand the reality of this legislation while they’re in their districts with their constituents – as opposed to hundreds of miles away in the U.S. Capitol. We’ve included our delegation’s addresses with the letter. If you can join this effort, please send me an e-mail to let us know.

In addition, continue to check out the Partnership’s blog for updates, insight and other opportunities to voice your opposition to EFCA.

Sincerely,
Andrew J. Rudnick