Card Check Legislation Introduced in House and Senate
House and Senate lawmakers have introduced the long-awaited Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) on March 10, officially kicking off what will be an extremely contentious debate over the future of the workplace secret ballot. EFCA would allow labor unions to organize a workplace without holding a secret ballot vote. Instead, workers would be able to organize themselves into a union by collecting the signatures of at least half of a workplace's employees.
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![[A woman wears a model house on her head during a rally at the Lafayette Square March 9, 2009 in Washington, DC. The rally was held to support the 'Employee Free Choice Act' which petitions corporate CEOs to stop preventing an economy which functions for everyone.]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/P1-AP033_LaborV_D_20090309181540.jpg "[A woman wears a model house on her head during a rally at the Lafayette Square March 9, 2009 in Washington, DC. The rally was held to support the 'Employee Free Choice Act' which petitions corporate CEOs to stop preventing an economy which functions for everyone.]")
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A woman wears a model house on her head during a rally in Washington to support the "Employee Free Choice Act." | The process, colloquially referred to as “card check,” requires that the names of everyone who signs the cards be publicly posted, meaning that the union officials, employers and coworkers know who did, and did not, sign the card. Employers and workers have argued that allowing unions to organize under these guidelines would encourage coercion, intimidation and harrassment.
In Senate testimony this week, Larry Getts, an employee of the Dana Corporation in Fort Wayne, Indiana, shared his story. “Union organizers waited for us in the break room, sat with us at lunch whether we wanted them to or not, and walked us to our cars at the end of the day. The entire time they were constantly badgering us to sign the cards," he said.
In addition to eliminating the secret ballot requirement, EFCA would also create a mandatory arbitration requirement on first contracts if workers and employers are unable to settle their differences within 90 days of commencing negotiations.
It is not yet clear when the legislation will head to the House or Senate floors, although rumors continue to circulate that the Senate will consider the legislation first, with many House lawmakers unwilling to vote on the legislation until the Senate can “prove” it can pass it.
NAHB will continue to push against enactment of EFCA, and the card check issue will be one of the main issues considered at the NAHB Legislative Conference at the end of March.
To view the legislation, click here and type the bill numbers H.R. 1409 and S. 560 in the box in the upper center screen. For more information, contact Jenna Hamilton at 1-800-368-5242, x8407.
View the full article in NAHB's Washington Update.
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