In addition to the card check provision, the EFCA contains the following additional provisions:īinding Arbitration: Currently, when a union is certified, the employer and union enter into good faith negotiations to create a contract that balances workers’ interests with the employer’s need to remain a viable business. Despite the obvious danger of abuse, the Act does not provide any specific restrictions on the manner in which a union may fight for those authorization cards. The EFCA will render secret ballot elections a thing of the past, and any union that obtains authorization cards from a majority of the employees in an appropriate unit “wins.” In other words, instead of privately voting on a union, an employee would be required to disclose his or her choice to the very person who is soliciting that vote – the union rep. If a majority of the voting employees vote “yes” to the union, the union wins.
If a union receives authorization cards from at least thirty percent of the employees in an appropriate voting unit, the case then proceeds to a secret ballot election. Unions are generally uninhibited in their method of soliciting them, whether by calling the employee day and night, or by showing up uninvited at his or her home. These cards represent an employee’s initial “showing of interest” in the union. Traditionally, unions begin an organizational drive by soliciting “authorization cards” from a company’s employees. The centerpiece of the EFCA is its drive to replace secret ballot elections with mandatory card checks.
Therefore, the Act seeks “to enable employees to form, join, or assist labor organizations,” and to increase penalties against employers – but not unions – that are accused of wrongdoing. The short answer is that this Act will significantly damage an employer’s ability to stay union-free, and it will impose more severe consequences on employers accused of interfering with unionization efforts.Īlthough the National Labor Relations Act theoretically governs employer and union conduct, the language of the EFCA carries an unstated presumption that, if left unchecked, employers will suppress the rights of its employees. With a Senate vote looming, many employers are asking about a bill entitled the “Employee Free Choice Act” (“EFCA” or “the Act”) and wondering what effect it will have on them.
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