by M B Parker

Created on: March 25, 2007   Last Updated: May 16, 2007

Analysis of The Employee Free Choice Act

The Employee Free Choice Act is currently making its way through Congress, and although it has not grabbed the headlines from the Iraq war, it may well be one of the more important domestic issues of this legislative session. The Act's advocates, most notably labor, claim that the law will correct corporate abuses of workers' and allow as many as 60 million currently unorganized workers to unionize. Its opponents in the business community claim the law will actually strip some of the protections employees have from overzealous union organizers and make the U.S. labor market less competitive with other nations.

The Act has three primary provisions. It allows workers to organize through a simple majority of signed authorization cards, requires binding arbitration when unions and employers cannot come to an agreement on an initial contract, and sets stronger penalties when employers break rules while workers are attempting to organize.

Currently, a majority of employees must vote for a union via secret ballot in order for a union to gain the authority to negotiate on the behalf of the employees. The election is held only after a certain percentage of employees sign authorization cards authorizing the vote. The first tenet of this law would change two key components of this process by dramatically reducing the standards that must be met in order to organize and eliminating the anonymity of those voting.

Removing the two step processes is a boon for union organizers, who are largely compensated based on membership growth, because it will reduce both the timeline and the burden of evidence for their membership campaigns. However, except in the most dire and abusive employment situations where organizing very rapidly may have its advantages, it is hard to make the case that this faster process with fewer checks and balances benefits the employee.

Under the current system, the authorization card is NOT equivalent to a vote for the union, it is simply an authorization to hold an election. The election is typically preceded by both the employer and the union making their cases to the employees over a period of time. The employee can then make an educated decision. Eliminating these steps reduces the time and information available to employees while making what is one of the more important decisions they will face.

Depending on the situation, organizing may or may not be the best option for employees, but one thing is sure. The decision

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