I am constantly amazed but never surprised by the double-speak and double-standards of Big Labor. An article in the WSJ today is a case in point. Anna Burger, of the Change To Win labor federation, wrote that financial services firms and their trade group should “immediately cease all lobbying and advocacy” against “card check” [the Employee Free Choice Act]. The letter was directed to the head of the Financial Services Roundtable, a banking and financial industry lobby, with copies sent to Congressmen who are overseeing the bank bailout.
Burger’s supposed reasoning is that the government typically restricts the use of federal funds to directly lobby Congress. She is attempting to extent this concept to any organization that secures funding from the government, which in the case of banks includes recent capital injections used to bolster their balance sheets.
As usual, she is talking out of both sides of her mouth. Unions receive plenty of government money for the running of job training and other programs. As the WSJ article points out, many employees of companies that have received bailout cash (auto industry for example) use some of their wages to pay union dues, which are then used to heavily influence political affairs (how about $450 million during the last election cycle).
Once again – Big Labor wants to selectively use the rules of the land in their favor, without having to obey them themselves.
Unions have traditionally leverged financial services firms to “see things their way” because union officers, by virute of their seat as a trustee on taft-hartley funds, can collectively influence the direction of billions of fund dollars. Gonna oppose card-check? Time to shop our plans!
The Employee Free Choice Act (card check) is costing jobs now. Many employers are facing the difficult task of what to do with their excess workforce in these slow economic times. Many are choosing to have a traditional layoff. My own company has been forced to have a layoff. However, fear of passage of the Employee Free Choice Act is forcing some companies to make the difficult decision to permanently fire employees. These fired employees will not have recall rights. If they are rehired, they will have to start all over for wages and benefits. Why is this? Fired employees can not be a part of a unionization campaign. If they have signed cards or sign cards in the future, these cards will not count under the EFCA. Most employers believe the ‘card check’ legislation will pass this year. President Obama supports this legislation and democrats control both houses of Congress. The House of Representatives has already passed this legislation. Employers are terrified of how easy it will be to unionize their workforces when this law passes. They are taking every step possible to prevent this from occurring. Unfortunately, this has a bad effect on employees who are being downsized.