Card Check not a cure, just another symptom
When todays employers attempt to highlight the many reasons why union representation is not in the best interest of their employees, they often point to the many laws on the books to protect them. Minimum wage, Health and Safety, EEOC, Family Leave and many others are now laws that employees can count on in providing fairness in the workplace. They’ll point out that before these laws were passed, unions often provided these services, and as such, perhaps justified their existence.
But no more.
What gets left out of the conversation is that these very laws are on the books today as a result of the very intense pressure and lobbying efforts from yesterdays labor unions. Unions that once took their charge as a voice for all working Americans, not just union members, seriously. They believed that raising the standards of all Americans would also lift up their members. A rising tide as it were. They spent millions of their members money to help make these important changes to our work culture. And they made a difference.
Labor is now spending many more millions of dollars in an attempt to pass The Card-Check bill, hyping it as a cure-all to what ails them. However, I think this bill provides an excellent opportunity for employers to point to as a perfect example of what’s really important to organized labor today. EFCA is a symptom of the disease, and hardly the cure for it. In stark contrast to all of those other bills above, this legislation lifts up not one worker. It doesn’t address any issue of concern to everyday, working Americans. It’s sole attempt is to help bail-out unions. And it does so at the expense of those very workers who they’re charged with speaking for. Unlike all of the other legislation that gave workers new rights, today’s modern version of unions are spending millions to take them away from your workers.
Lost in all of this is the missed opportunity that labor has to redefine itself as relevant to workers. Their failure to enter the discussion on more important issues like Universal Health Care, our national trade policies, and other important topics ripe for discussion should be used as an example when talking to your employees about what is really important to organized labor today.
From the LRI Blog | stf | 
February 9, 2009 2:31 pm
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