Pay-To-Play And Lawmaking

I never cease to wonder at the creativity of corruption.  As Congress begins to focus on how to attempt to pay for the 1.6 Trillion socialized health care proposals the new administration is seeking to implement,  Congressmen are factoring in giving the unions a bye on sharing their part of the cost.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., is working on several proposals to tax health care benefits.  But the plans offer exemption to unionized employees!

Imagine a Union Organizer…Holding Your Employee Spellbound for 30 Minutes or more?

In Today’s Issue: Imagine a Union Organizer Holding Your Employee Spellbound for 30 Minutes or more?

Imagine a Union Organizer…Holding Your Employee Spellbound for 30 Minutes or more?

Yeah, I know it sounds crazy.  But I’m not asking you to believe anything just yet, until you see the evidence for yourself.   All I ask is that you refrain from disbelieving while I show you my proof. It only takes a minute to convey, but it speaks to one of the most important questions:  Are your employees already engaged in union organizing activities?

When a union organizer targets your firm as easy prey for unionization, they’ll spend time in the nearby bars, diners, or convenience stores to find out more about your firm.  One of our former union organizer consultants, Jim, says he would hang out at the closest restaurant to your place and start telling the locals that he was interested in working at your plant.

Prince Charming Union Organizer

He’ll cleverly disarm the waitress and ask who should he talk to, and if people seem to like it there. Are there any employees unhappy with the company?  He’ll explain he just wants the learn the ins and outs before applying.  Jim will request the waitress to introduce or point out who he should speak with at your firm.

After Jim meets a few of your employees, he spends time bonding and building rapport.   He’ll act personally interested in your employee to build trust.  He’ll find out who is most liked and influential in your staff.  He may even go as far as applying for one of your jobs.

When Jim joins your workforce, he’s very likeable and becomes the model employee.  He’s the employee you wish everyone was like.  He’ll work extra hours and be willing to take on more responsibilities – this gives him an opportunity to roam the entire place and meet everyone.  The whole time, he’s building trust in team and underhandedly exploit weaknesses in your management employee relations.

Eventually, you have a disagreement with one of your employees.  Jim befriends and supports your employee.  He introduces him to Sal (a union organizer). Sal shares how your employee is under-paid and can receive more benefits.  The easy solution is just sign union card as a step to become unionized. Sal will even offer a financial incentive for your employee to sign the card.

The Evil Step Mother Union Organizer

When your employee refuses, Sal will threaten that your unit is about to become unionized.  If he leaks a word about this, as soon as the unionization becomes official, your employee’s job will be toast.  Sal may even go as far as harassing and badgering your employee and his family.

When your employees are approached by union organizers…the signs are so subtle.  Your management is unlikely to notice.  One of our clients last week was shocked to discover the union organizers brazenly – but quietly – engaged his employees over a period of several months and not one supervisor suspected a thing.

Our Crystal Ball On How We Uncover Union Activity

You probably wonder how we know. You see Jim and Sal now work for us. They spent years actively unionizing companies until they saw the terrible impact of their actions.  Plants closed, jobs lost, divisions moved overseas. They also saw the dark side of unions – the politics, infighting and disregard for members that made them sick. Jim and Sal reinvented themselves as part of our team of highly trained “union organizer detectives.” They want to serve you.

Jim and Sal understand the hay-day the EFCA will provide for union organizers.  No more union elections.  Only 50% plus one can make a department (that’s right – one department, not your whole company) unionized. They get the havoc this causes on America’s business. They want to prevent the aftermath of bad legislation by helping you identify your weak spots BEFORE it’s too late.

If you’d like to talk to Jim, Sal or one of our other former union organizer consultants about your unique situation we’d be happy to set it up. We offer new clients a free “30 Minute Union Vulnerability Audit” which we conduct over the telephone with you and your top staff members. Here is what we accomplish together in this fast-paced, no-nonsense session:

- Union vulnerability: Are you lying awake at night worried about whether a union organizer is making headway with your employees? We’ve helped hundreds of clients clear this hurdle with three specific strategies. Plus we’ll give you a script for hitting this problem head-on without the fear of potential legal landmines.

- Difficult employees: One or two bad ones can tank your company. But a borderline problem can be quickly and easily corrected – so long as you know what critical misstep not to take. Our consultant walks you through our three-step process (which takes literally about six minutes) and shows you exactly how to carry this out in no more than 1-2 weeks. This will immediately enhance your effectiveness as an executive and will literally transform your employee relations environment.

- Communicating a positive vision: You’re all too familiar with how easily employees can ignore all the good things your company provides while constantly focusing on the negative. We’ll show you three strategies you can implement immediately to help you quickly and easily get credit for the hard work you do to create a good work environment.

The 30 Minute Union Vulnerability Audit is conducted by one of our former union organizer consultants, who have organized hundreds of companies and can tell you “from the inside” where your company is vulnerable. This consultation is not a thinly disguised sales presentation; it consists of the best intelligence we can supply in a thirty minute time span. There is no charge for this call, but the call must be strictly limited to 30 minutes.

To secure a time for this consultation, please call Lisa Erwin at 800-888-9115 and she will advise you regarding available time slots. She will also provide you with a pre-consultation questionnaire that will prepare both you and us to get maximum value in the shortest amount of time.

To your success,

Phillip Wilson

Wanted! Employee Free Choice Act Super Arbitrator!

In Today’s Issue: Wanted! Employee Free Choice Act Super Arbitrator!

If you or someone you know fits this profile, contact us immediately!

My name is Arbitrating Andy.  I’m a highly seasoned arbitrator who is flawlessly skilled at settling contracts between unions and private-sector employers in less than 90 days.  My track record consistently demonstrates my rare to ability mediate effectively without neutrality within extremely short periods.

1.  I am active on the FMCS (Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service – the arbitration federal agency named in the proposed legislation) listed amongst arbitrators.

2. My documented engagements show that sometime after 1990 I served as the first-chair negotiator during the successful negotiation of a first contract between a union and a private-sector employer.  I completed the contract in less than 90 days after the union was certified as the collective bargaining representative in an NLRB-supervised election.

3. The bargaining unit covered by this contract had at least 100 members.

4. The bargaining unit in question was not subject to a neutrality agreement or any other type agreement that would allow union representation without opposition (for example: there was no “master agreement” in effect that said if a new unit is established the master agreement would apply and only local issues would be negotiated).

Reward Available NOW!

If you know or suspect anyone meets the above criteria or know someone interested in applying, reply to this email. If your person meets the qualifications, they may be entitled to a reward.  Labor Relations Institute is offering a $10,000 prize (payment to be made to the “super arbitrator’s charity of choice) to the first Federal arbitrator who can show they have settled a first contract between a union and a private-sector employer in less than 90 days.

Why Are We Doing This?

You are probably wondering why we are doing this. We are exposing a key flaw of the Employee Free Choice Act.

The Employee Free Choice Act puts a 90-day limit on the bargaining process before the employer and union members are effectively removed from the negotiation. In our experience, this timeline is simply unrealistic.

Unless there are a large number of Super arbitrators out there (we have yet to meet even one) this unrealistic timeline will be disastrous. To make this point, we’re offering one dollar for each of the 10,000 union elections we’ve been involved in.  So far…as of early March 2008, not a single arbitrator has come forward to accept this prize.

We oppose all three sections of the Employee Free Choice Act: card check, binding arbitration and increased employer penalties, but the arbitration timeframe is the most dangerous, and overlooked part of the legislation.

You probably have noticed the card check gets all the attention.  The idea of taking away people’s right to vote is such a divisive and emotionally charged issue. However, this is only a smoke screen for the true fatal flaw, which is the horrible arbitration process.  The arbitration process takes power away from the employers and union members by putting the long-term fate of the company in the hands of people unqualified to make those decisions, and who don’t have a stake in the outcome of those decisions.

Get informed on how the EFCA effects your business and your employees.

To your success,

Phillip Wilson

Next Issue: Imagine a Union Organizer…Holding Your Employee Spellbound for 30 Minutes or more?

The Truth About "Union Scale" Wages

In Today’s Issue: The Truth About “Union Scale” Wages

When a union targets your firm, it can quickly penetrate your uninformed people. It’s easy for them, because most people don’t know much about unions, and most of what they “know” isn’t really helpful.

Once a union is in, the process of getting rid of one is almost impossible. Unions create corporate survival pitfalls, so it is really important for your employees (and your first level leaders) to understand exactly how a union can impact a business BEFORE they are asked to sign a union card.

One thing people think they “know” about unions is that once a union comes into a company that all employees automatically start getting “union scale” wages and benefits. Most people are surprised to learn that outside of a narrow range of construction-industry area-wide agreements (and even there you’ll find lots of “exceptions” to the rules) there is no such thing as “union scale”.

Unions and companies negotiate wages, benefits and other “hard” labor costs on a case-by-case basis. And while there are labor contracts (like the old-line UAW contracts in the auto industry – more on that in a minute) where wages and benefits are higher than average, most first time labor contracts entered today do not achieve large increases over the wages and benefits in place BEFORE the union came in. In fact the average wage increase in union contracts is actually LOWER than the average increase in non-union companies today.

When an employer is forced to negotiate with a union – even if you assume that “hard” labor costs like wage rates and benefit payments stay steady – their “soft” costs of doing business increase dramatically. These “soft” costs include things like costs to pay attorneys or other professionals to negotiate contracts or handle arbitration cases.

There are also the “monitoring” costs of administering a labor contract. A lot of time is wasted (on both sides) just making sure everyone is following the contract and arguing about it when someone feels like it’s not being followed.

There are work rule restrictions that can make a company less competitive. And finally there is just the “pain in the rear” factor of always having to negotiate over every major change before you can do it – a lot of companies just throw up their hands and say “what’s the point?” while their non-union competitors just fly on by.

All these things can increase costs. And those costs either displace other things (investments in new technology or product development, for example) or they are passed on to consumers. This of course can cost companies business, creating an even bigger challenge. Few companies can remain competitive.

As a double whammy, many union contracts leave employers unable to reward talent based on merit.  Unions like to negotiate pay is based on seniority.  It places a roadblock for companies to attract the necessary expertise to remain competitive.

Just look at unionized companies like Chrysler. After receiving a part of $17.4 billion federal loan, Chrysler declares it needs more money. Chrysler is just barely making it.

As a method to gain expertise and offset high costs, Chrysler is seeking a pact with Fiat S.p.A in which this Italian automaker provides the needed engineering for new models for a return 35% stake. This allows Chrysler to utilize engineering expertise from other countries.  Plenty of talented engineers live in the US. But its financial situation makes it impossible for Chrysler to employ local experts.

Even under the heavy publicized coverage Chrysler is in deep financial trouble, the UAW refused to accept a modified contract to make the facility competitive during a lean time. Magna International Inc relieved its union pressure by closing Chrysler’s Syracuse plant. Instead of lower, more competitive wages…now, there are no jobs and no wages for the workers.

In this competitive market, it can be easier for a firm to close or move than it is to deal with union pressure.

An ounce of prevention, can save your firms viability, and resilience to compete. Develop your first level leaders as the unsung heroes of your workforce.  Train your leadership to inform employees about the truth concerning the impact of unionization.

Unions claim to offer employees a short-term gain (even that claim is wrong) but long term a union can suffocate your company and eliminate your employees livelihood. They need to know the facts about unions before they are approached to sign a union card.

To get simple to use DVD tool available to train your management on how to inform your employees …click here < you need to add your links here>

Train your employee leadership to communicate and inform employees on how union representation creates pitfalls in long-term employment.

To your success,

Phillip Wilson

Next Issue: Wanted! Employee Free Choice Act Super Arbitrator!

Unsung Hero of Saving Jobs

In Today’s Issue: Unsung Hero of Saving Jobs

Virtually anyone can do it. So it’s easily taken for granted. Even pooh-poohed by some in today’s gadgetized corporate world.

But if your first level leaders communicate regularly with employees – as little as once or twice a week – about “big stuff” you’ll massively improve your employee relations environment. Most companies who measure engagement find that it doubles when they do a good job of this. Some companies have seen improvements of 8 times or more.

Before we talk about the “big stuff” you should address with your employers, let’s take a closer look at this unsung hero of your workplace.

Your first level leaders – they are the critical link between a positive and engaged workforce or a negative, disengaged workforce vulnerable to union organizing activity.

Your first level leaders are top management’s only line of defense. How they handle this role is the difference in whether your company is vulnerable to a union organizing attempt or not. It is that simple.

Union Organizers, don’t just announce that they’ve decided to target your company. In all but the most rare cases the organizer hopes that your first notice of a campaign is the fax machine humming in your office with the petition from the Labor Board. And we’ve started lots of cases where that was management’s first sign that anything was wrong.

To the untrained eye, subtle early signs go undetected. Your leadership probably doesn’t know how to recognize early warning signals. When we train management teams in our 5-day “Boot Camp” training sessions we teach that you can’t just memorize “the list” that you picked up at the last labor law seminar you went to. Real union organizers – who we use to deliver our training – know that lists don’t matter because the signs could be different with your people – behavior matters.

You know how you can tell your spouse or your kid is pissed at you without them saying a word? That is noticing behavior changes. Do your first level leaders recognize behavior changes among the people who work for them?  Recognizing behavior change takes two important steps – paying attention to the “before” behavior (developed over regular and consistent interactions) and then looking for the “after” behavior.

This is where “big stuff” conversations comes in. The only way to rapidly develop your “before” model is by having regular conversations about something other than the day-to-day work that is going on. There is very little depth to these “line of fire” conversations about how many parts were shipped or when a machine will be back on line.

Instead “big stuff” conversations are about things like:

1. How did you end up here?
2. Where are you headed?
3. What do you like about your job?
4. What would you change about your job?

These conversations are not just highly motivating to employees, but they also quickly give you some “baseline” behavior about how open or closed an employee is and how positive or negative they are. By the way, this may sound like it’s a “union avoidance technique” or some psycho mumbo jumbo. It’s not. It is just simple leadership.

Once you have established a rapport and a “baseline” with an employee you lead you now will have what you need to understand when behavior changes. And when behavior changes for any reason all you have to do is ask, “what’s up – you’re acting different than you usually do (name specifically what has changed) – is there something you want to talk about?” Most times that’s all you have to say.

Again, this isn’t some union avoidance technique. For most leaders the answer to that last question will never in their whole career have anything to do with unions. But there will be something causing that change in behavior. The fact that you noticed – and asked about it – a lot of the time is all that really matters to that employee.

If there is something bigger going on, you have a chance to be a resource early on, when you can actually help resolve the situation. And like I said, 99 times out of 100 that will have nothing to do with unions. It will usually be a problem with a coworker or maybe a problem at home. But whatever it is, you can help. And that’s leadership.

What if it is a union organizing effort? We’ll talk about that next time.

To your success,

Phillip Wilson

Next Time: Your Early Warning System

EFCA Interview Online

In Today’s Issue: EFCA Cheatsheet

Thanks for signing up for the EFCA Updates.  We are glad you are as interested as we are in the status of this grievous piece of legislation.  As Big Labor’s agenda  continues to work its way through Congress, we’ll keep you  abreast of the progress.

A lot of our clients have asked us to summarize the “best  practices” for preparing for EFCA (or a compromise legislation like quickie elections). We developed a quick “cheatsheet” you can use to evaluate what your company is doing and to help identify any “holes” in your preparation. You can download your own copy of the cheatsheet by clicking below.

Download the EFCA Cheatsheet

Also, if you haven’t already done so I encourage you to watch or  read our interview with Donald P. Wilson, founder of Labor Relations Institute. Watch online or download a copy of the transcript as a PDF at this link.

To your success,

Phillip Wilson

Next Issue: Unsung Hero of Saving Jobs

Unions and the "Willy Wonka" Problem

In Today’s Issue: Unions and the “Willy Wonka” Problem

Remember Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory? Violet Beauregarde was a precocious young gum-chewer who tries a prototype “three-course-meal” chewing gum during he tour of Wonka’s factory. Willy Wonka warned her not to try it because of some unsolved problems with the blueberry pie flavor.

Violet disobeys and at first enjoys the intriguing new “treat” (consisting of tomato soup, roast beef, baked potato and blueberry pie flavors). But when Violet gets to the blueberry pie, her face begins to turn blue and she blows up like a balloon. Wonka has the Oompa Loompas roll Violet away to the juicing room before she explodes.

Unions have a similar problem to Violet. As we learned last time, when they first came to power they not only achieved important and positive things for their members, but they built a lasting legacy of restrictions on employer behavior that remains strong today. But like Violet, what at first was a good thing grew and grew over time. Eventually in many cases the massive gains unions made were completely out of proportion to what their host employers could handle. And that is when the big troubles began.

Here are some examples of how unions became victims of their own success:

1. Anti-competitiveness. Unions raised workers wages substantially above the wages paid to nonunion workers. This leads to two problems. First, unionized employers tend to substitute technology for labor whenever possible, over the long run creating unemployment and reducing the overall demand for labor (not to mention the number of people who benefit from these “monopoly” wages). In addition, union-made products have become more expensive.  Sales are lost to less expensive foreign competitors and nonunion producers.

2. Decline in the value of merit. Workers find it difficult to advance on their own merit in many union settings, where most contracts focus on seniority for advancement.  Union contracts specify the process for increasing wage which serves the group not the overachiever. This can sometimes lead to more productive talent leaving for non-union operations where they are more likely to benefit from their unique talents.

3. Unable to weed out underperformers. In unionized companies there is a lot of peer pressure not to “show off” your brothers and sisters. In some cases it is also more difficult to move (or remove) poor performing or ineffective employees. In that environment unionized workers can lose the incentive to work hard.  There’s no incentive to excel for the get-up-and-go employee.  Workers can become comfortable with mediocre culture in protective surroundings and pressure by the union not to go the extra mile.

4. Fewer investors. Savvy investors invest in competitive firms with sharp nimble management, and healthy margins.  Nonunion firms attract more investors.  With extra invested capital, firms can apply financing to acquire new technologies and expert talent to remain competitive. We are no longer in Kansas, economic dynamics changed

During the 1950’s, the French and British imported automobiles to the US.  By 1956, Japan started its US with compacts pick-ups.  New foreign car-makers began a gradual trend to increase competition. When you purchase your car, it’s an investment.  During your ownership your car requires maintenance and part replacements.  For decades, owning a foreign car implied added expenses.  Very few mechanics knew how to fix foreign cars.  The law of supply and demand allowed foreign car mechanics to charge higher fees.  Car parts could take weeks to replace. Purchasing American cars was a far more attractive option than foreign cars. It was easy, American auto dealers could compete on price and maintain higher unions wages because there was little competition.

By 1982, Honda opened the first US foreign car manufacturing plant which opened the gateway for a gradual change in attracting more US consumer dollars. By 1993 foreign-based auto plants built over 2.7 million passenger cars and light trucks in the U.S. and Canada annually.  South Korea’s Hyundai opened an assembly plant in Québec. During the mid-1990s, Germany’s Daimler-Benz and BMW both opened state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in South Carolina and Alabama, respectively.

The foreign auto firms provided quality vehicles, with available and affordable maintenance, and without paying higher fees to cover union labor costs.  In addition, these firms provide employment and benefits to US citizens. The model for unionized auto-workers no longer serves the new economic landscape. It’s even surprising the US has any unionized labor in the private sector that still can compete or survive.

We live in what is called a “flat” world that is highly competitive. As technology advances, information, communication, and exchange of ideas can take place instantly.  Competition is no longer limited to who is local.  It’s too easy to transport jobs overseas.  Highly trained and skilled labor is available in other countries at lower fees.  Therefore it’s essential for businesses to remain nimble and flexible to compete. Unfortunately for unions, they still are living several decades in the past.

After Violet was “juiced” by the Oompa Loompas, she left the Chocolate Factory purple, but no worse for wear (in the 2005 remake starring Johnny Depp as Mr. Wonka, Violet became very flexible and quick, doing cartwheels out of the plant). Unlike Violet, unions haven’t learned this lesson. Far from being flexible and dextrous business partners, they remain fat and bloated. And in our flat world, that is definitely a recipe to get “juiced” by the competition.

To your success,

Phillip Wilson

Next Issue: Unsung Hero of Saving Jobs

Unions: Good or Evil

In Today’s Issue: Unions: Good or Evil?

Many visitors to our site  – especially the union supporters – ask me “why are you guys so anti-union – what is so bad about unions?” Actually, they’re often a lot more explicit than that (you’d be surprised the different places I’ve been told to go over the years…).

The fact is that I’m not anti-union – I’ve written books and training materials for unionized companies about how to get along with a union productively. I’ve seen and worked with many companies who have a positive relationship with their union.

But it’s true that the vast majority of the time I think a union is a bad thing for a company and its employees. Overall I don’t think many unions do what they claim (and what members pay their hard-earned money for) and in most cases I think they are a drag on businesses and the overall economy. Which brings us back to the original question. Why?

Unions the Arch-Angel

During America’s industrial revolution, workers labored under extreme unsafe conditions, worked long hours, and earned low wages.  Even worse, employees had little to no legal protection.

Since then government protections – largely lobbied for by unions – successfully raised the bar for better employment environment.  The exploitation and abuse so common during the early industrial years of America’s growth are distant memories. By and large employees are treated comparatively well. Even the worst companies typically provide decent pay, benefits and working conditions and legal protections are plentiful.

That is not to say that union members can’t claim some superiority to their non-union brothers and sisters. In 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, union members median earnings (that includes wages and benefits) of $886 per week (that’s $46,072 per year). Non-union workers whose median weekly earnings were only $691 ($35,932). A higher percentage of union members receive benefits like health insurance than their non-union counterparts.

But like with many statistics, things are not always what they seem. First, this wage differential is significantly overstated and disappearing (I won’t go into the reasons here, but if you want to learn more about that take a look at my series Unions: The 7 Lies You must Know). While in many cases (although certainly not all) union members enjoy higher wages, there’s no such thing as a free lunch…

Unions the Achilles-heel

Now, you see the tables turned.  Unions initially used their early power to help workers stop the common abuses and begin to achieve substantial gains in wages and benefits. But soon this power become corrupting. Unions threatened strikes and violence to achieve monopoly wages and benefits for members and companies often agreed to these anti-competitive packages because they felt they had no choice.

For a while, companies could continue to operate under these restrictive and onerous contracts, simply passing the costs on to consumers. Yet even during these times unions would strangle a company’s ability to compete and thrive. And it is not simply labor costs that hurt companies. Even more damaging are restrictive work rules, intended to increase headcount (and therefore dues-paying members). In addition there are the administrative costs of observing and enforcing all these rules (often growing to several hundred pages in length).

Many firms found themselves in desperate trouble to survive.

Resources:

To learn more about some of the other common misconceptions about unions, take a look at my email series “Unions: The 7 Lies You Must Know” which has been downloaded over 5,000 times. You can sign up for it here.

To your success,

Phillip Wilson

Next Time: Unions and the “Willy Wonka” Problem

Will EFCA Be Enacted in 2009?

In Today’s Issue: Will EFCA Be Enacted In 2009?

It’s the first question I get asked by just about everyone these days. It’s at the top of the mind of virtually every knowledgeable business leader in America. Everyone wants to know one thing:

Will the Employee Free Choice Act be enacted this year?

1) On March 24th Arlen Specter announced his opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act and – most importantly – said that he would vote against cloture (method of closing a debate and causing an immediate vote without fully exploring the issue) . So is that the death of the Free Choice Act until 2011 (after the next round of Senate elections in November of 2010)? Very doubtful, for two reasons:

1. Unions have two immediate goals. Return on the hundreds of millions they invested in the 2008 election cycle and knowing exactly where they need to invest in 2010. There is really one good way to do that: force a vote on EFCA in 2009. That way unions can count noses and figure out who to go after in 2010 and then get some kind of compromise legislation (more on that in a minute). Then they’ll go to work on the Senate seats in 2010 so they can come back for the rest of their agenda with a (they hope) filibuster-proof majority in 2011.

2. Unions can’t leave the historical victory of 2008 with nothing to show for it. They’ve been left at the altar enough times to know that the only thing you can be sure about in politics is that you can’t be sure of anything. The opportunity to amend the National Labor Relations Act comes around about never. They’ll want some sort of compromise while they try to build on their 2008 victory.

Unions are currently sitting at around 58 votes for EFCA. Some may argue it is a vote or two less than that because some “Blue Dog” Democrats won’t support it but I think conservatively you must assume that all or nearly all Democrats will, in the end, do what labor says.

This goes back to the “counting noses” strategy. Any Democrat that announces opposition to EFCA is buying the full wrath of the labor movement in his or her next election. Mark it down: unions will demand revenge for any Democrat who bucks them on Free Choice.

So being that close they only need a couple of Republicans to help them pass a compromise bill (by the way, one was already introduced in the House – you can download a copy of it at the end of this email).

Who might those Republicans be? Well, Specter is one of them. If you didn’t actually read or hear Specter’s speech you probably want to do that – he already listed a whole heap of amendments to the labor laws that he would sign on to support (you can also download those at the end of this message), and most of them would have nearly the same effect as the EFCA.

There has been speculation about some other “hardball” tactics to get EFCA passed in its current form this year (including blowing up the filibuster, a move threatened and nearly implemented in the 100th Congress) but I would look for some kind of compromise legislation sometime later this year. It most likely will include quick elections, but could also include “baseball” arbitration (that’s one of the things Specter mentioned he would support in his speech) and equal time provisions (in other words allowing union organizers onto your company property to meet with employees at work).

The bottom line? This thing is far from over. You should keep updated on a daily basis on what is happening and prepare your company leadership for the possible compromise proposals (being on this email list is a great way to do that). Don’t let your guard down. And keep educated.

Resources:

Here are some of the key things you should consider “required reading” on the Free Choice Act.

HR 1409 (the text of the EFCA of 2009)

HR 1355 (the text of the EFCA compromise bill)

Arlen Specter’s Law Review Article

View Arlen Specter’s Speech (plus a transcript and the appendix)

To your success,

Phillip Wilson

Next Time: Unions: Good or Evil?

Labor Relations INK – EFCA Update Edition

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.

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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):

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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

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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.

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Contributing editors for this issue: Phillip Wilson, Greg Kittinger