EFCA is Dead... Long Live EFCA?
The Employee Free Choice Act is dead now that Massachusetts State Senator Scott Brown (Rep) won the battle with State Attorney General Martha Coakley (Dem) for the late Senator Edward Kennedy’s seat in the U.S. Senate. The Democrats lost their 60-seat, filibuster-proof Senate. American businesses are heaving a collective sigh of relief.
Not so fast…
EFCA was only the simplest, surest path to Big Labor objectives (and payback for the millions of dollars and hours spent on behalf of Democratic candidates in the 2008 election cycle). As we have stated for months in our e-newsletter, almost all of EFCA can be accomplished via regulation, without any vote by Congress.
Keep in mind,
Obama is Big Labor-Friendly. His appointments to the Dept. of Labor and the National Labor Relations Board indicate his willingness to put labor ideologues in key positions of power. The regulatory power within those positions is vast.
Big Labor almost spent itself into insolvency to obtain the labor-friendly majorities it now has in both Houses of Congress, not to mention the White House.
Most unions took the first half of last year off from their normal pace of organizing efforts, most likely hoping that the EFCA would pass much sooner. Their organizing activity picked up near the end of last year to a frenzied pace, and their win rate has been rising.
Juxtapose those last two items, and you realize that Big Labor must find new blood (i.e. new union dues-payers).
There are still strategies for placing EFCA within other legislation, such as a jobs bill.
D.C. is still a big, unpredictable political animal. Who knows what horse-trading might eventually end up giving us the EFCA, even though it couldn’t stand on its own merits.
So what should you expect? Our best estimate includes:
Quickie Elections – once the NLRB is at full strength it will regulate a shortened election cycle (most likely 7-14 days).
Increased penalties for employers for Unfair Labor Practice charges. The new, aggressive NLRB is also likely to test the waters on more aggressive penalties, including punitive damages.
Some type of extreme penalty for bad-faith bargaining, including a time limit set for bargaining a first contract, which would trigger mandatory mediation or arbitration.
The growth of “stealth” card signing campaigns. We have already begun to experience this tactic – union organizers keeping their head low for as long as possible.
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking the “EFCA” is dead. As an intact piece of legislation, it has probably met its demise. But the proponents of EFCA are alive and well and placed in positions where they can make many of its provisions happen.
PERHAPS IT IS A NEW DAY
LET US HOPE US
To think that the unions are not prepared with a backup plan to the EFCA would be foolish.
Expect a backup plan from unions
The EFCA now gains even more importance to Labor as it now becomes a focus point that Obama can deliver upon. Labor wants some return on their investment and this appeasement is logical, and attainable without much fuss from business…we must beat this back also.
TPGjr
Appparently the AFL CIO wanted to talk to Brown the day before the election but he turned them down. I doubt if the Unions are as short on cash as we think, but will put their efforts in working through Solis, the NLRB and the Courts to get what they want.
Maybe we will be stuck with a 2 person board for 3 more years:)
If they dont’ get EFCA or some variant, you can expect them to dump OBama and move on to the next Demo pres campaign of terror.
Everybody keeps saying unions are in trouble. Lets face facts: Unions are always the ones perceived as the bad guys. Tell that to the 23 year non-union employee who walks into work one day, coffee in hand, putting his 3 kids thru catholic school, and BAM! A security officer is at his desk to make sure he cleans his belongings out and exit the property immediately…….corporate re-structuring! Oh, and the company decided to keep the 2 year employee that this man trained. They say in this economy workers can’t afford union dues……I say they can’t afford not to pay union dues. The sad thing is that 2 year employee isn’t educated enough about unions to realize it’s going to happen to him 1 day also……oh well, the cycle continues! Just how corporate America likes it.
[...] completely change the face of politics as we know it? It is ironic that this decision comes down the same week that Massachusetts voters dealt a serious blow to Big Labor’s legislative agenda. The long-term outlook for labor’s agenda may have [...]