The specter of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) is haunting newly minted Democratic Senator Arlen Specter so much that he's turned to making things up evidently.
At the AFL-CIO Convention this week in Pittsburgh, the former Republican maverick, who is now being threatened with extinction in the Democratic party by labor leaders if he doesn't support EFCA, announced that he had the 60 votes necessary to pass a revised EFCA.
However, no one else in the Senate appears to know of the deal, which Specter said would involve five-day elections instead of card check and "baseball" arbitration instead of open-ended arbitration (baseball arb empowers an arbitrator solely to choose either the "last best" contract offer from labor or the one from management).
Senate leader Harry Reid says he knows of no deal and furthermore thinks card check must be part of the final bill.
Best bet is that Specter is scared to death of Pennsylvania union activists siding with his Democratic challenger in the upcoming primary and of Big Labor sending millions to his opponent lest Specter deliver on EFCA.
Showing posts with label Employee Free Choice Act. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Employee Free Choice Act. Show all posts
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
Michael Moore Was Right: Card Check Was a Ruse
Mockumentarian and far-left spokesperson Michael Moore was right in saying several months ago that you could strip card check from the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) and still have businesses where you want them--on their knees and begging government to bail them out.
That's because the mandatory arbitration clause in EFCA lives on without card check, and it's those faceless bureaucrats running arbitration who are the unions' best friend. They'll be more than happy to split the difference between a 3,000-percent pay raise demand and a 3-percent pay raise offer--and come up with 30 percent or more.
That's why it's not surprising that the Democrats pushing EFCA are now more than willing to jettison card check and instead mandate elections within five or ten days of getting 30 percent of employees to sign up for a union. That's the current state of "compromise" in the Senate. Card check, it turns out, was just a Trojan Horse to get contracts dictated by bureaucrats to Mom-and-Pop businesses, to say nothing of the ultimate goal, the total take-down of Wal-Mart.
"First, Detroit, and now Benton, Arkansas" may as well be the union battle cry.
They won't stop until there is no private enterprise left--and government runs everything.
Oh, sad, sad day.
That's because the mandatory arbitration clause in EFCA lives on without card check, and it's those faceless bureaucrats running arbitration who are the unions' best friend. They'll be more than happy to split the difference between a 3,000-percent pay raise demand and a 3-percent pay raise offer--and come up with 30 percent or more.
That's why it's not surprising that the Democrats pushing EFCA are now more than willing to jettison card check and instead mandate elections within five or ten days of getting 30 percent of employees to sign up for a union. That's the current state of "compromise" in the Senate. Card check, it turns out, was just a Trojan Horse to get contracts dictated by bureaucrats to Mom-and-Pop businesses, to say nothing of the ultimate goal, the total take-down of Wal-Mart.
"First, Detroit, and now Benton, Arkansas" may as well be the union battle cry.
They won't stop until there is no private enterprise left--and government runs everything.
Oh, sad, sad day.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Obama Admits Not Enough Votes for EFCA
President Obama told a town hall meeting yesterday in New Mexico that "there aren't enough votes in the Senate to get it passed," referring to the controversial Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), or what's known as "card check."
“There may be areas of compromise to get this bill done,” Obama said at a town hall meeting in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, outside Albuquerque. “That’s what we’re working on.”
Filmmaker and radical liberal Michael Moore suggested months ago that the card check provision, which allows unionization through the collection of a majority of employees' signatures, could be jettisoned, and the bill would still accomplish its goal of strengthening unions.
Reason? Fines on employers (but not unions) would skyrocket, and employers would also have a gun held to their heads to cave into a contract within 90 days of unionization or have one crammed down their throats by an arbitrator.
In fact, card check may have been thrown into the bill just to assure passage through compromise of the other measures. Recent statistics show that unions win 67 percent of unionization votes, but that employers stall on the negotiations front so that only 56 percent of new unions ever get a signed contract. EFCA would solve that dilemma tidily for the unions.
My suggestion: Scrap the whole sorry piece of legislation and read this article on why unions already hold the advantage.
“There may be areas of compromise to get this bill done,” Obama said at a town hall meeting in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, outside Albuquerque. “That’s what we’re working on.”
Filmmaker and radical liberal Michael Moore suggested months ago that the card check provision, which allows unionization through the collection of a majority of employees' signatures, could be jettisoned, and the bill would still accomplish its goal of strengthening unions.
Reason? Fines on employers (but not unions) would skyrocket, and employers would also have a gun held to their heads to cave into a contract within 90 days of unionization or have one crammed down their throats by an arbitrator.
In fact, card check may have been thrown into the bill just to assure passage through compromise of the other measures. Recent statistics show that unions win 67 percent of unionization votes, but that employers stall on the negotiations front so that only 56 percent of new unions ever get a signed contract. EFCA would solve that dilemma tidily for the unions.
My suggestion: Scrap the whole sorry piece of legislation and read this article on why unions already hold the advantage.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
EFCA Sponsor Says Card Check May Go Bye-Bye
Senator Tom Harkin, D.-Iowa, says compromise is in order to save the Employee Free Choice Act, specifying that the card check provision will no doubt have to be dropped.
“Compromises are going to be made,” said Harkin, 69. “It probably won’t be card check [as part of the final law], because too many people are opposed to it now.”
Card check allows organizers to unionize a company by merely getting 50-percent-plus-one of the employees to sign off on the idea. No election need be held, but the union (har de har har) could still ask for one. Business is unilaterally opposed to it, with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce calling the EFCA "Armageddon."
(New York Governor David Paterson has already created card check in his state by fiat--executive order. Henceforth, all businesses receiving government assistance in just about any form in his state will be subject to card check unionization.)
Harkin said he's hoping that the compromise bill he's negotiating with fellow senators will win the "grudging support" of both labor and "some business."
For its part, labor says card check is non-negotiable and absolutely essential, and from the business side comes the stance that, even with card check gone, the EFCA is still Armageddonish with its binding arbitration provision.
The proposed law mandates a two-year binding contract be imposed if the company and union fail to agree upon a contract after 90 days of direct negotiations and another 30 days of mediation.
In the words of Rodney King, "Can't we all just get along?"
Evidently not.
“Compromises are going to be made,” said Harkin, 69. “It probably won’t be card check [as part of the final law], because too many people are opposed to it now.”
Card check allows organizers to unionize a company by merely getting 50-percent-plus-one of the employees to sign off on the idea. No election need be held, but the union (har de har har) could still ask for one. Business is unilaterally opposed to it, with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce calling the EFCA "Armageddon."
(New York Governor David Paterson has already created card check in his state by fiat--executive order. Henceforth, all businesses receiving government assistance in just about any form in his state will be subject to card check unionization.)
Harkin said he's hoping that the compromise bill he's negotiating with fellow senators will win the "grudging support" of both labor and "some business."
For its part, labor says card check is non-negotiable and absolutely essential, and from the business side comes the stance that, even with card check gone, the EFCA is still Armageddonish with its binding arbitration provision.
The proposed law mandates a two-year binding contract be imposed if the company and union fail to agree upon a contract after 90 days of direct negotiations and another 30 days of mediation.
In the words of Rodney King, "Can't we all just get along?"
Evidently not.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Dem Defection Seems to Doom EFCA
Losing their lone Republican supporter in Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the Democrats pushing the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) in the Senate faced what best could be called an uphill battle.
With the announcement yesterday by Democratic Senator Blanche L. Lincoln of Arkansas that she "cannot support that bill," however, things are now trending decidedly downhill.
Without modifications, EFCA may be finished in the 111th Congress unless the Dems resort to the reconiliation process to bypass a cloture vote, which requires 60 Senators to move a bill along. However, reconciliation would set up several nuclear explosions politically and would have a hard time surviving the Byrd Rule, which states that reconciliation must be used only for budget matters (although they're already hinting about enclosing health care reform in reconciliation).
Other than modifying the EFCA or passing just parts of it, supporters may have to wait until 2010 when there will be more Republican than Democratic Senate seats up for reelection. The Democrats might well end up with a filibuster-proof Senate, or they may get spanked as they did after two years of Bill and Hillary in 1994.
Time will tell.
With the announcement yesterday by Democratic Senator Blanche L. Lincoln of Arkansas that she "cannot support that bill," however, things are now trending decidedly downhill.
Without modifications, EFCA may be finished in the 111th Congress unless the Dems resort to the reconiliation process to bypass a cloture vote, which requires 60 Senators to move a bill along. However, reconciliation would set up several nuclear explosions politically and would have a hard time surviving the Byrd Rule, which states that reconciliation must be used only for budget matters (although they're already hinting about enclosing health care reform in reconciliation).
Other than modifying the EFCA or passing just parts of it, supporters may have to wait until 2010 when there will be more Republican than Democratic Senate seats up for reelection. The Democrats might well end up with a filibuster-proof Senate, or they may get spanked as they did after two years of Bill and Hillary in 1994.
Time will tell.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
EFCA: Canada Rejects It, We Embrace It
It's funny--and illustrative--that Democrats in the U.S. have always ached for the liberalism of our northern neighbor, which is one reason why I've been warning on these pages that health care reform, Demo-style, is nothing but a Trojan Horse for socialized medicine a la Canada.
However, on one crucial issue, our U.S. liberals are not watching northern affairs closely enough. Canada once had card-check union authorization on the books in all ten of its provinces. After disastrous results, the law has been rescinded in six provinces, including Saskatchewan, birthplace of and home to Canada's communist party, and the most liberal province of all.
Jason Clemens explains this more fully in his article on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).
Meanwhile, the EFCA, as estimated by the Heritage Foundation, could end up unionizing more than 4 million small businesses since the exemption for small businesses has not been increased since 1959 and stands at gross receipts of $50,000 a year. There are very few small businesses today that could survive on that meager amount of revenue.
The AFL-CIO's Stewart Acuff denies unions will be targeting small businesses, but what's to stop any group of employees from unionizing once they see how easy it is?
However, on one crucial issue, our U.S. liberals are not watching northern affairs closely enough. Canada once had card-check union authorization on the books in all ten of its provinces. After disastrous results, the law has been rescinded in six provinces, including Saskatchewan, birthplace of and home to Canada's communist party, and the most liberal province of all.
Jason Clemens explains this more fully in his article on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).
Meanwhile, the EFCA, as estimated by the Heritage Foundation, could end up unionizing more than 4 million small businesses since the exemption for small businesses has not been increased since 1959 and stands at gross receipts of $50,000 a year. There are very few small businesses today that could survive on that meager amount of revenue.
The AFL-CIO's Stewart Acuff denies unions will be targeting small businesses, but what's to stop any group of employees from unionizing once they see how easy it is?
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
China: Laboratory for EFCA-Style Unionization
Can't blame 'em. Business owners in China's manufacturing belt, their businesses up in smoke in the worldwide recession, are fleeing the country and leaving their workers high and dry--and yuan-less--rather than cope with China's restrictive labor laws.
Of course, you can also call them rats for absconding with their companies' loot while leaving their workforce with no money to survive on. China's recent Labor Contract Law supposedly protects workers from unannounced factory closings and loss of pay, but many owners have been doing an end run and disappearing.
To date, some 20 million migrant workers, who relocate from the provinces to work in factory-rich Guangdong Province and send money home to their families, are now unemployed.
Since all workers are unionized in China (but have no right to strike), the national union is fighting back, and so is the government.
"We will use all labor-related laws to help migrant workers keep their jobs in this difficult time," Zhang Mingqi, vice-chairman of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions said at the start of the National People's Congress (NPC) session.
Some owners were also hopeful that the government would not enforce the Labor Contract Law and other provisions, but that's not going to happen, evidently.
Xin Chunying, the deputy director of the legislative affairs commission of the NPC Standing Committee, said the Labor Contract Law will not be amended because of the current global economic downturn.
"The crisis has nothing to do with the law. We won't amend the law because of the downturn," she told a press conference of the ongoing NPC session Monday.
Anyway, all this looks eerily like what will happen in the United States if the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA--see yesterday's posting) passes. In a word, chaos. In two words, disappearing companies.
Of course, you can also call them rats for absconding with their companies' loot while leaving their workforce with no money to survive on. China's recent Labor Contract Law supposedly protects workers from unannounced factory closings and loss of pay, but many owners have been doing an end run and disappearing.
To date, some 20 million migrant workers, who relocate from the provinces to work in factory-rich Guangdong Province and send money home to their families, are now unemployed.
Since all workers are unionized in China (but have no right to strike), the national union is fighting back, and so is the government.
"We will use all labor-related laws to help migrant workers keep their jobs in this difficult time," Zhang Mingqi, vice-chairman of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions said at the start of the National People's Congress (NPC) session.
Some owners were also hopeful that the government would not enforce the Labor Contract Law and other provisions, but that's not going to happen, evidently.
Xin Chunying, the deputy director of the legislative affairs commission of the NPC Standing Committee, said the Labor Contract Law will not be amended because of the current global economic downturn.
"The crisis has nothing to do with the law. We won't amend the law because of the downturn," she told a press conference of the ongoing NPC session Monday.
Anyway, all this looks eerily like what will happen in the United States if the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA--see yesterday's posting) passes. In a word, chaos. In two words, disappearing companies.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)