Card Check Rears Its Ugly Head in California

I guess that headline shows my bias. Anyway, turns out that the Golden State (doesn't glitter too much anymore, though) legislature will soon send a bill to Ahnold's desk that would allow agricultural workers to form unions by card check.

Card check is the now-infamous method proposed in the federal Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) that allows organizers to form unions by collecting signatures from 50 percent-plus-one of a firm's employees. The EFCA would enshrine the method nationwide, but that bill is locked in a pitched battle in the Senate.

New Jersey has a card check law, but it applies only to businesses that have no interstate commerce connections, such as race tracks, so its impact is limited. Similarly, the California law slips through the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) by confining itself to in-state agriculture (though I'm sure the food is sold in other states--so a questionable bill at best).

The Governator has three times vetoed similar measures, and hopefully he will this time too.

In the meantime, catch a load of this surreal debate:

"How many summers do we have to go through of heat-related deaths? How many farm-related accidents...before we recognize that unions are most important for people who are the most vulnerable?" said Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg.

Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said his bill would prevent farm owners and labor contractors from intimidating workers before secret-ballot elections. But farm and business groups say the legislation could let the United Farm Workers pressure employees into signing the union cards.

Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced, questioned whether workers are any safer with union representation.

"I was unaware of the fact that under union contracts we have less heat-related deaths. Do you have statistics to back that up?" Denham said.

Steinberg did not produce statistics but said he was unaware of any unionized farmworkers dying from a heat-related ailment.

Hostage-Taking Trumps Card Check Anyday

As is their wont, the French reject American culture while embracing and perfecting it, in their own inimitable way.

Take the example of unionization. France is widely unionized. You can hardly visit there without the garbage collectors or air traffic controllers or railway operators going on strike for this or that. They all work for publicly operated entities, which are in turn union strangled, oops, I mean controlled. Anyway, a one- or two-day strike makes for a nice little holiday, n'est-ce pas?

Here in the United States, we argue over card check and whether that should be allowed as the preferred option for union organizing.

In France, they don't argue--they take hostages.

The latest example comes from the Molex Inc. plant in Villemur-sur-Tam. Owners are threatening to close the plant and have been negotiating with the union, but the union smells a rat, sensing that Molex wants to shift operations to China.

Hence the logical thing to do is take two executives hostage until the company agrees to leave the equipment and workers all in place.

So far, this sounds like a Gallic version of the Republic Windows and Doors stand-off in Chicago of late last year. There, employees staged a sit-down until they got their severance packages.

In France, we'll just have to wait to see what happens.

Hostages are, however, treated civilly during these stand-offs. Last month, an executive held hostage at 3M was even treated to moules et frites (mussels and fries, a traditional dish) as a snack.

Like I said before, why check cards when you can just hold some hostages until you get what you want?

"Sign here to recognize our union, or we'll keep you hostage until you do" works faster than gathering all those signatures.

Score: Card Check 0, Wal-Mart 1

Now, here's one for all of you who love the idea of card-check unionization as embodied in the nascent Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW), using card check, organized a Wal-Mart store just outside Montreal, Canada, in 2005. And, of course, it began collecting union dues (the sine qua non of labor and politics, the almighty buck).

The UFCW spent the next three-plus years trying to negotiate a contract, and this was in the heart of union-loving, union-friendly Canada, with Wal-Mart balking the whole time.

The issue, a la EFCA, went to arbitration, and the arbitrator this week issued his finding.

Guess what?

Wal-Mart won big time. Arbitrator (remember, this is unionville) Alain Corriveau ruled that the UFCW demands would destroy Wal-Mart's business model, which he said treated employees as well or better, wage- and benefits-wise, as competing retailers.

Wal-Mart’s compensation system, said the arbitrator, "must be retained," and "falls within the culture of the company which encourages and privileges performance at work." He added: "Putting into place...a wage scale as proposed by the union would also drastically change an important piece of [Wal-Mart’s] business model."

He did grant a 30-cent wage increase over the next two years to current employees at the Saint-Hyacinthe Wal-Mart so they wouldn't be "impoverished" by union dues. New hires will not get the raise, however. (Read more details here.)

Question: Are the employees now going to card check the UFCW out of their store?

Answer: If they're smart, they will.