LABOR RELATIONS INK – March 18, 2009

EFCA UPDATE

Rather than our normal edition of INK this week, we wanted to send a quick update of issues specific to the Employee Free Choice Act.

To download a PDF of this newsletter, click here.

First – a few resources:

Read the text of our $10,000 reward to any federal arbitrator who can claim they have done what the EFCA requires of companies, which is to negotiate a labor contract in 90 days.
Download the text of the EFCA of 2009, HR 1409
Download the text of the EFCA compromise legislation HR1355
You can see the most recent actions taken on both HR 1409 and HR 1355 on our blog
For “during the day” updates see our blog or follow us on twitter
To see other LRI media coverage see our media page

View the March 4th WebCast we did sponsored by the Oklahoma Chamber of Commerce among many others. Two Oklahoma Congressmen were guests on the WebCast (one a Democrat!). Click here to watch – it’s an hour long.

**********

For the latest on the Free Choice Act (we are updating things nearly every day) take a look at our blog. Here are some excerpts of the latest posts (if you are intrigued click the link below each post to read more):

**********

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Employee Free Choice Act – Looking Ahead to 2010

This week the EFCA discussion is focusing primarily on whether there is enough support to pass it uncompromised in the 111th Congress. There are fewer co-sponsors this time and some of the key Democratic votes are a little squishy at this (admittedly very early) point in the game.

There are two schools of thought about how this might play out. One is that a compromise version will get voted on soon (one was quietly introduced in the House this week). The other scenario, and the one that I think is more likely, is that unions will want to count noses (and perhaps even force a filibuster) on the full monty before allowing any compromise at all.

read the rest of the post here…

**********

Friday, March 13, 2009

Bold Union Strategy
This article out of Washington State points to two strategies working against American businesses and workers. Interestingly, the focus of this article is actually on the less alarming of the two.

Apparently, a veteran official of the Washington State Labor Council wrote a memo outlining possible strategies to pursue this week in hopes of getting a vote on a new piece of union-friendly legislation. The email was sent to a number of labor leaders, and copied to four lawmakers. One of the strategies equated to a threat to withhold future campaign funding for members of the congress that went against Big Labors wishes.

read the rest of the blog entry here…

**********

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Dose of Reality?
Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas seems to be connecting the dots in the brouhaha over the Employee Free Choice Act, along with a few others. Let’s follow Senator Lincolns plausible stream of thought: the largest employer in Arkansas is…WalMart. Analysts at Citigroup in New York downgraded their WalMart recommendation to a hold instead of a buy because…passage of the EFCA could force increased labor costs and limit expansion. I want to be seen on the side of the Employee Free Choice Act because…I’m for loss of jobs for my constituency???

Although Lincoln was in favor of the EFCA in the 2007 debate, she is now hedging her bets.

read the rest of the blog entry here…

**********

Thursday, March 12, 2009

EFCA Debate Cranks Up In Congress

I won’t say much about this video – watch for yourself. Big Labor is pushing hard trying to get their paid-for Senators to carry their water, but I don’t know if they have big enough yokes to carry that much water up the size of the hill they may be facing! America is finally starting to take notice, and I think this is one reason the Employee Free Choice Act was introduced this week – to beat the working people to the punch before they know what hit them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMnmpD1fwnw

**********

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

18 Democratic Senators Fail to Co-Sponsor EFCA

Here are some Senators you need to be talking to if you want to stop EFCA. There are 40 cosponsors on S.560, the Employee Free Choice Act, which was introduced today. No cosponsors are Republicans. The 18 D’s who are not cosponsors are:

* Baucus
* Bayh
* Bennet
* Bingaman
* Conrad
* Dorgan
* Feinstein
* Hagan
* Kohl
* Landrieu
* Lincoln
* McCaskill
* Nelson (NE)
* Pryor
* Tester
* Udall (CO)
* Warner
* Webb

Hat tip to Worker Freedom.

**********

Labor Relations INK is published semi-weekly and is edited by Labor Relations Institute, Inc. Feel free to pass this newsletter on to anyone you think might enjoy it. New subscribers can sign up by visiting:

http://www.lrionline.com/union_avoidance/newsletter.htm

If you use content from this newsletter please attribute it to Labor Relations Institute and include our website address: www.LRIonline.com

Contributing editors for this issue: Phillip Wilson, Greg Kittinger