Freedom not Fear

Yesterday the Senate rejected Craig Becker's nomination to sit on the National Labor Relations Board, the main federal agency governing relations between unions and employers in the United States.

The defeat of Becker is a major blow to the controversial Employee Free Choice Act, which would strip workers of the right to a secret ballot in union elections, as well as implement binding arbitration on employers, regardless of the demands put forth by union bosses.

Becker's own past suggested he would use the NLRB to implement provisions of EFCA administratively, removing the need for action in Congress, where the bill itself has been effectively dead for about a year due to a lack of support... more »

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported late last week that more than 50% of union members are actually employed by the federal, state, or local governments. The release also showed that union membership overall slightly declined over the past year.

Could there be any serious concerns here? As Brian Johnson points out in the Washington Times:

"This unprecedented event raises the question: How can a public that wants smaller government achieve that goal when every dollar that goes into that government is paying to build an interest group intent on growing the government?"

The forces inside the leadership of Big Labor also, coincidentally, favor big government, and the fact that now most of their dues payers work for the government give them an even greater incentive to support that.
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Who needs Congress, which represents the will of the people, when you can just force the White House to give you what you want?

That's exactly what Big Labor has been doing, according to a new story in Bloomberg.  The report indicates that unions are "gaining momentum" under the Obama administration, mostly through tactics that do not require popular consent.

Though reaching their most-publicized goals -- legislation making it easier to organize and a government-run health insurance program -- remains in doubt, unions are making other gains through executive orders, rule changes and appointments. More advances may be ahead as regulatory nominees are confirmed.

"You absolutely know something is going to happen to you, you just don't know when," said Michael Lotito, a San Francisco attorney...

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According to the Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, Sen. Arlen Specter's speech to a roomful of AFL-CIO delegates declaring his optimism over the EFCA didn't go over as well he thought it would. A few minutes later in the press debriefing when union big shots made it known they were most definitely not on board with some of the proposed changes to the bill. Big labor, oddly, doesn't really care to negotiate. One of the changes they objected to included replacing binding arbitration with "last best offer" arbitration, a process where each side picks their favored outcome and the arbitrator chooses between the two.

Interesting that union leaders are dissatisfied with this change because, as the article points out, last best offer still binds the parties to whatever decision the arbitrator (almost certain to be a government bureaucrat with strong political ties and motives) and eliminates the employees' ability to vote on their contracts.

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In an effort to better understand why some Democratic leadership in this country believe that the reciprocal, self-interested relationship between the current administration and big labor is a stepping stone on the path to "re-building an economy that works for... more »

With President Obama speaking at the AFL-CIO's convention today, we should remember how devastating the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) will be for our already hurting economy.

According to a study by noted economist Dr. Anne Layne-Farrar, EFCA would cost America an estimated 600,000 jobs in the first year alone. 

With unemployment at 9.7%, we clearly can't afford this job-killing bill.  So far, these facts about EFCA have been flying under the radar, so we need your help to spread the word. 

Please forward this study and the television commercials below to your friends and tell them about the destructive nature of EFCA.

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You may not know who US Senator Tom Harkin (Iowa) is yet, but you will. With the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy, Harkin recently took over as head of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and it's been reported that one of "his priorities is legislation backed by Kennedy to make it easier for workers to unionize... ."

We're talking, of course, about the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), another piece of massive legislation slated to be pushed through by the Obama administration and considered by some detractors, including workplace law firm Jackson Lewis, as nothing more than a "bailout" for big labor.
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The news that General Motors (GM) declared bankruptcy makes me ill. You see, I grew up in Michigan, where the auto industry was so much a part of the culture, that I and many others considered it as American as apple pie. My father spent 32 years as a skill tradesman at the GM Fisher Body plant in Detroit.

Yet, as GM awaits its $30 billion in government, bail-out money, 68% of which could end up going to the United Auto Workers (UAW), its employees look for new jobs. The same folks who made demands of GM it could not meet now stand to receive as much as $20 billion.

By the end of the day, the Federal Government will own more than 50% of GM and the UAW will own another 20%.

There is an old saying that "as GM goes, so goes America." Let me explain.

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In this short video from President Obama's town hall meeting held today in Albuquerque, President Obama agrees that the Employee Free Choice Act eliminates secret ballot elections and replaces them with "card check"; the notion that if a majority of workers want to form a union they should be able to do so by signing a union authorization card rather than having to go through a formal election process.

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The Situation

The top legislative priority for organized labor and their allies in Congress is the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), also known as "Card Check."  EFCA is an enormous power grab by big labor bosses that would strip workers of their right to decide by private ballot whether to join a union, and their right to freely negotiate their contract.  Instead of a secret ballot election, workers would be asked to publicly sign cards in front of union organizers, potentially subjecting them to harassment or intimidation. 

Simply put, EFCA is a threat to workers' rights.  This campaign is not anti-union; in fact, we believe that workers have the right to organize, but they must be able to vote in secret.

Our polling shows that the American people are firmly on the side of supporting a worker's right to a secret ballot election.  In fact, the tri-partisan agreement to defend this right is overwhelming, as 77% of Republicans, 82% of Democrats, and 79% of independents believe in protecting private ballots.  Support for private ballots is so broad it also spanned union households and every subgroup examined, including majorities of every age, race, geographic group and both genders.

Threat to Worker Rights and the Economy

The rights to a private vote and to freely negotiate contracts are fundamental American principles that must be protected. By stripping American workers of these rights, freedom would be supplanted by fear, force and intimidation.

Moreover, with business owners struggling to keep their doors open, the last thing they need is more costly bureaucratic red tape and federally imposed work rules that will reduce competitiveness in the workplace.  Forcing workers to join a union will kill jobs in America at a time we can't afford to lose them.

The Opportunity

With public opinion overwhelmingly on our side, American Solutions will organize an internet-based, grassroots effort to engage citizen activists on this issue so Members of Congress will face enormous constituent pressure to oppose this anti-democratic bill.

We hope that you'll join our "Save American Jobs Project" by signing the petition and communicating with your elected representatives your opposition to EFCA.

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