Pro-union card check; bill could be a threat to small- and medium-sized distributors

Pro-union measure could be a threat to small- and medium-sized companies

By Jade West -- Industrial Distribution, 4/1/2007

As Congress wrapped up its work for the first quarter of 2007 much attention was focused on the Iraq debate. But business should also be focused on organized labor's top legislative priority, the misnamed “Employee Free Choice Act” (EFCA), or “Card Check” legislation.

Union membership today is at a record low: Just 7.4 percent of private-sector workers are unionized. The two large labor federations, the AFL-CIO and Change to Win Coalition, are determined to reverse their declining membership and are asking Congress to make it easier for them to do so.

Under current law, if a union obtains signatures on cards from 30 percent of the workers in a workplace indicating interest in union representation, the union presents those cards to the employer and asks to be certified as the collective bargaining agent. The employer may agree to do so, but may instead insist that the National Labor Relations Board conduct a secret ballot election in which all employees may vote in private on whether they choose to be represented by the union.

Currently, the unions win more than half of these NLRB-certified elections. When they win, collective bargaining agreement negotiations with the employer begin.

If the “EFCA” advanced by Congressman George Miller (D-Calif.) and Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) were to become law, a union conducting an organizing drive would be automatically recognized as the certified collective bargaining agent if 50-percent-plus-one of the workers in a workforce sign cards indicating interest in union representation.

The employer might not even know that the union was soliciting cards from his employees and would no longer have the right to ask for a secret ballot election to allow workers to exercise their vote on the issue in private (protected from possible coercion and intimidation). The employer would be forced to recognize the union immediately and begin collective bargaining negotiations.

Under current law, as long as there is a “good faith” collective bargaining negotiation, there is no deadline for reaching an agreement. Under EFCA, if an agreement is not reached within 90 days of a successful card check campaign, the union can refer the negotiations to federal mediation. If an agreement is not reached within the next 30 days, the union can demand that the negotiations be referred to binding “interest arbitration.”

In other words, if the employer and union do not reach agreement in 120 days, the employer would find the terms of employment with its workforce set by a third party arbitrator—who would not be confined to issues that had been discussed by the employer and union.

The employer could not reject the agreement, and it would be binding on the company for two years.

Big Labor is also looking to new organizing opportunities in America's small businesses. In 2005, 20 percent of the NLRB elections were conducted in companies with fewer than 10 employees; a full 70 percent of the elections that year involved fewer than 50 employees.

If EFCA becomes law, organizing small businesses will become very inexpensive for unions. It would cost them virtually nothing to work a shop with only a few employees. And they can, and do, complete an organizing drive in a single weekend by visiting employees at their homes to get signatures on cards.

The combination of small-business targeting by unions with the proposed legislation is lethal. An employer could arrive at work on a Monday morning to a fait accompli–a unionized workforce–without even knowing it was a target and with no opportunity to discuss the issue with the employees.

The “Card Check” legislation was put on a legislative fast track in the House of Representatives. It was introduced on Feb. 5 and passed within a month.

The Senate also intends to act quickly, as a hearing on the bill in the Senate Labor Committee was scheduled before the end of March.

NAW is on the Management Committee of a business coalition, The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, which is working with a determined pro-business minority in the U.S. Senate to defeat EFCA.

But we are taking nothing for granted. A broad-based, national effort is needed for us to succeed. If you want to let your senators know how you feel about this legislation, visit NAW's Web site (www.naw.org). Click on the “Tell Congress” button, provide your address, and we'll take you to a page with the names of your senators and a way to send them a letter. Your voice counts only if you make it heard.