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No Choice At All
Senator John Thune has condemned the Employee Free Choice Act (S. 560) as a measure that would eliminate the right of employees to vote by secret ballot in labor union elections in the workplace and mandate that government arbitrators could impose contract terms on businesses and employees. This bill would reduce the competitiveness of U.S. businesses, costing our economy much-needed new jobs.
This is not a partisan issue. Even former Democratic Senator and Presidential candidate George McGovern agrees that this measure is a bad idea:
Voting is an immense privilege.
That is why I am concerned about a new development that could deny this freedom to many Americans. As a longtime friend of labor unions, I must raise my voice against pending legislation I see as a disturbing and undemocratic overreach not in the interest of either management or labor.
The legislation is called the Employee Free Choice Act, and I am sad to say it runs counter to ideals that were once at the core of the labor movement. Instead of providing a voice for the unheard, EFCA risks silencing those who would speak.
The key provision of EFCA is a change in the mechanism by which unions are formed and recognized. Instead of a private election with a secret ballot overseen by an impartial federal board, union organizers would simply need to gather signatures from more than 50% of the employees in a workplace or bargaining unit, a system known as "card-check." There are many documented cases where workers have been pressured, harassed, tricked and intimidated into signing cards that have led to mandatory payment of dues.
Under EFCA, workers could lose the freedom to express their will in private, the right to make a decision without anyone peering over their shoulder, free from fear of reprisal.
Dr. Anne Layne-Farrar of the non-partisan Law and Economics Consulting Group (LECG) has conducted a detailed analysis of this legislation. Her conclusion is that "passing EFCA would likely increase the US unemployment rate and decrease US job creation substantially." Read the study.
Senator Thune recently held an open roundtable discussion in Rapid City, South Dakota, on this issue with local business leaders and concerned citizens.While the Rapid City Journal editorialized against Senator Thune's engagement with South Dakotans on the issue, Senator Thune has committed to continuing this critically important discussion with South Dakotans and all Americans.
I write in response to the recent Journal editorial "Union isn't the right roundtable topic," regarding the discussion I hosted with local citizens and business leaders on the proposed Employee Free Choice Act in Rapid City on Tuesday, April 7th.
The Journal claims this is a topic unworthy of discussion, then states in the same editorial that it is important to discuss, that it is controversial, and that the "bigger issue is being concerned about a sustainable business climate that's going to profit both the business owners and employees."
While the Journal dismisses the input from the participants and panelists as "angry talk," no one was angry. It was a standing-room only crowd of concerned local citizens calmly and seriously discussing a topic everyone there deems critically important to the survival of jobs and businesses. As often occurs in an open forum, there was some disagreement in the room. However, the majority agreed that this legislation would be devastating to small businesses, harmful to the competitiveness of U.S. companies and would result in a loss of American jobs.
Some participants focused not on secret ballots but on the forced binding arbitration provisions in the bill that would government arbitrators to oversee every detail of their businesses, from dictating the number of people they must employ to production processes. One local citizen in the audience shared that after fifteen years serving as a union President, he could not support stripping workers of the right to secret ballot elections, claiming this would lead to intimidation efforts against employees.
If the Journal were truly concerned about a sustainable business climate, surely an attempt to strip employees of the right to secret ballots in labor union elections and force businesses into binding arbitration in contract negotiations, a move that would drastically change the business climate both in our state and across the nation, would be considered a topic worthy of discussion.
The Journal states that the Employee Free Choice Act, as it is misleadingly titled, has no chance of passing Congress. I wish I shared that optimism. If the Journal is correct, then why are labor unions and left-leaning special interest groups spending tens of millions of dollars running advertisements, organizing advocacy programs, and pressuring Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle to affect an outcome on this bill? Those groups would not invest so much in a bill that has no chance of passage. The fact is that only two or three more votes are needed in the U.S. Senate for this bill to pass.
I will continue to communicate with South Dakotans on this critically important issue for our economy regardless of the Journal's editorial.
