Employee Free Choice Threatened by New Lobbying Campaign

A new big business lobbying campaign against the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA HR1409/S.560) threatens to eviscerate the bill. Starbucks, Whole Foods and CostCo are lobbying together to weaken the pro-labor Cardcheck Bill.

The proposed provisions would tighten some organizing rules in favor of workers and keep the secret ballot, but at the expense of eliminating mandatory arbitration. Mark Ambinder reports that the new provision would also require 70% or workers to sign cards to form a union (cardcheck) vs 50% yes vote by secret ballot.

I don’t see any appeal for organized labor in this “compromise”. First, mandatory arbitration is a big deal because in many cases firms simply drag out negotiations forever, making sure there is no contract—even when unions are recognized. And 70% is a high hurdle. As compromises go, this one will do nothing but compromise unions’ ability to organize more workers and negotiate contracts.

Even if you don’t care about workers’ right to unionize, the fact is that where unions are strong, Democrats win. Republicans know this, which is why they’ve done everything they can to weaken unions. Unions also raise wages generally in the population. As Nathan Newman notes, even non-union workers benefit from unions, because employers increase wages to be competitive, so they aren’t too easy to unionize.

This is a battle worth fighting.