Truth about Free Choice Act

Corporate America may be contributing as much as $200 million to defeat the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) and their media campaign is ramping up. Monday's letter from the state director of Illinois Americans for Prosperity contained their key talking points, which distort the truth about the EFCA. (It is important to note the national chairman of the board of Americans for Prosperity is David Koch. With his brother, he runs the Koch Foundation, a top contributor to conservative organizations in the country.)

Their primary talking point is that the EFCA will eliminate "secret ballots" in union certification. In fact, the EFCA does not change the current options for forming a union, card check or election. It merely removes the ability of the employer to "game" the process and suppress union formation. The EFCA will correct several problems in current labor law that allow business to suppress union formation. Currently, employees have the option of joining a union by signing a card (card check) or by an election.

But if more than 30 percent of the employees sign a card, the employer can force an election. During the organizing campaign before an election, employers have been known to illegally fire pro-union workers (25 percent of the time), threaten to close the work site if the union wins (51 percent of the time), force employees to attend anti-union meetings or meet "one-to-one" with supervisors (90 percent of the time) or delay elections indefinitely. EFCA will place the decision about forming a union back in the hands of the employee.

If more than 50 percent of the employees sign cards, the union will be allowed to form. This has always been an option in labor law, but EFCA removes the employers' ability to "veto" the union formation by forcing an election. If the union forms, employers have been able to delay, sometimes years, before negotiating a contract. Most importantly, the EFCA would allow 90 days after union certification to a negotiate a contract. At that point, either party could request federal mediation, the first step toward binding arbitration of a two-year contract. This is the provision of the EFCA that the business community is determined to defeat. It will provide labor with a powerful tool for collective bargaining which has been absent for generation. A strong labor movement is good for the economy and good for working families.

Currently, unions represent only 12 percent of American employees, a dramatic decline in the past generation. Compared to other affluent Westernized countries, we have lower union membership, more poverty, more income inequality and longer work weeks despite higher productivity. We do not have national health care. These are problems that unions can help to solve. We should support the EFCA.

Lynn Barnett

Vernon Hills