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Today we will discuss what has been referred to as "card check.
"If the EFCA becomes law, then counting union authorization cards is substituted for a secret ballot election.
At the same time, the employer loses its right to communicate with employees on the important question of whether to have a union.
At the present time,under Federal law, when a union attempts to persuade employees at a company to unionize, union representatives will attempt to get employees to sign union authorization cards.
When an employee signs the card, he or she is authorizing the union to act as his/her representative for purposes of negotiating a labor contract with the employer.
Currently the union can ask the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to hold an election after 30% of the employees have signed cards.
However, this rarely happens.
Once the union has signed up more than 50% of the employees, the union can demand that the employer recognize the union as collective bargaining representative.
The employer can refuse that request and tell the union to ask the NLRB to hold an election.
Usually, that election may not take place for a month.
That period could be extended if the NLRB has to decide whether certain employees or groups of employees are eligible to vote in any election.
During the time between when the employer knows that there will be a vote among employees as to whether to have a union, and the actual election, the employer can use that time to attempt to convince the employees to vote against the union.
Since 1948, the law permits an employer to express its views on unionization so long as the employer does not use threats of reprisal or the promise of benefit.
Recognizing that the delay between the dates an election is requested and the election itself will usually cause some employees to decide not to vote for the union, even if they have signed a card, the union will not normally seek an election until it has received signed cards from 60% to 70% of the workforce.
The EFCA would circumvent this entire process by denying employees a secret ballot election and depriving the employer of an opportunity to persuade employees not to have a union.
Under the EFCA, once the union has obtained signed cards from a majority of employees, the employer would have to recognize the union; there would be no election, and no chance for the employer to inform employees of the negative consequences of unionization.
Thus, if the EFCA becomes law, the only real voice in whether the employer has a union is the union organizer.
Union organizers resort to all manner of treachery to convince employees to sign union cards - "You should sign because everyone else is signing," "If you don't sign a card and the union gets in, your job will not be protected" - are but a few of the tricks or threats made by union organizers.
Especially for smaller employers, a union could conduct a stealth organizing campaign, and once a majority of employees sign cards, the union could then compel the employer to recognize the union.
For example, if the employer had 11 employees, only 6 employees would have to sign cards, and under the EFCA the employer would have to deal with the union.
The employees would not be able to vote and the employer would not be able to persuade employees not to have a union.
Thus, it should be obvious from this description of the drastic changes proposed in the EFCA why the unions are pressing democrats in congress with the support of the president to enact this law.
If this law passes, the success and/or failure of your business could well lie in the hands of a ruthless union organizer who could care less whether your business prospers or meets its demise.
Unfortunately, the EFCA contains another very dangerous provision which we will discuss next week - bringing socialism to the American workplace
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