What Does the Secret Ballot Protection Act (SBPA) Do? Unions are turning to card check. Unions… Read more
Over the past generation, the Labor market has changed profoundly. Computers have automated many manual and repetitive tasks. The share of American workers employed as operators, fabricators and laborers or in precision production craft and repair occupations has fallen by 10 percent. Robots have relieved many workers of the tedium of the assembly line. Today's employers… Read more
Fifty years ago, Congress passed the landmark Landrum-Griffin Act to protect rank-and-file union members from malfeasance by union leaders. Senate hearings had uncovered serious corruption and other unethical practices inside the labor movement, and a bipartisan coalition emerged to shine the light of disclosure on union practices. Nevertheless, Democrats in Congress and in the executive branch have… Read more
Do you like your boss? Would you like a new boss? If Congress passes the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), it might not matter - the government could make every important decision for your company. The government would decide how much you're paid, what health and retirement benefits you… Read more
The misnamed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA, H.R. 800) is organized labor's top legislative priority. The portion of the bill that ends union organizing elections has received the most attention and criticism. No less dangerous, however, is a binding arbitration provision that would empower government officials to set workers' wages and working conditions. Binding arbitration could… Read more
Labor activists argue that the government supervised secret ballot election process unfairly favors employers. They claim that even when employers follow the law, the system favors employers who want to remain union-free.[1]But in reality, the current election laws favor union organizers, not employers. Federal law severely restricts what employers may say and… Read more
Corporate campaigns have become organized labor's preferred tactic to recruit new dues-paying members. In a corporate campaign, unions hit companies with constant negative publicity, litigation, and regulatory investigations that put severe financial pressure on the firm. In most cases the company has done nothing wrong, but the union will not let up until it agrees… Read more
Revised and updated June 20, 2007 Labor activists argue that Congress should pass the Employee Free Choice Act because employers routinely intimidate and fire workers who try to unionize. Employers, they claim, have retaliated against pro-union workers in one-quarter of organizing elections, discriminating against or firing more than 31,000 workers who wanted to… Read more
Revised and updated March 6, 2009 Organized labor's highest legislative priority, the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA, H.R. 800), would replace secret ballot union organizing elections with "card check," in which union organizers publicly solicit workers' signed union authorization cards. If a majority of a company's workers sign cards, they all automatically join… Read more
Under the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA, H.R. 800), if a union and management cannot agree to terms on the first contract after a union is recognized, either side could send the dispute into binding arbitration. This means that both workers and management must accept what is, at bottom, an arbitrator's educated guess at what… Read more
A steady decline in union membership has led union organizers and sympathetic politicians to introduce "labor reform" legislation designed to make it easier for unions to gain representation rights over more workers without becoming more accountable to those workers. The main labor reform bill before Congress, the Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 800), contains two… Read more
Democratic elections are a fundamental right in America. Private ballots, such as those cast in the privacy of the voting booth, ensure that voters can express their wishes without pressure or fear of reprisal. American workers should have this right, too, when they vote on whether to join a union. But the drive to… Read more
Revised and updated March 6, 2009 Since the passage of the National Labor Relations Act in 1935, the government has protected the privacy of workers considering joining a union through secret-ballot elections. . Labor unions now allege that secret-ballot elections are so inherently unfair that they do not reflect workers' true choices. They want Congress… Read more
While it is widely known that the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA, H.R. 800) would strip workers of their right to vote in private on joining a union, the bill contains an equally harmful provision that has attracted much less attention. EFCA would allow unions to send negotiations on their first contract with an employer… Read more
Revised and updated June 20, 2007 Labor activists argue that secret ballot organizing elections are stacked against workers who want to join a union. Companies, they allege, systematically fire pro-union workers, threaten to shut down if their workers unionize,… Read more
Privacy is supposedly a signature issue for the online left. Opposition to even FISA court-approved basket warrants is a...… Read more