Revised EFCA Bill Takes Out Card-Check Provision

BILL HENNING: 'Cautiously optimistic.'

In a change designed to improve the chances of the Employee Free Choice Act being approved, a group of Senate Democrats has removed a key provision from the bill that would make it easier for workers to form unions in order to make it more palatable to moderate lawmakers.

The compromise measure would no longer mandate that employers recognize a union through a "card check"— when a majority of employees in a workplace have signed union cards. With the exception of some public employers in certain states, employers can force workers to participate in a secret ballot election overseen by the National Labor Relations Board.

Speeds Election Process

But Democrats and some labor leaders last week still believe the bill would ease unionization because it would shorten the time between when workers petition for a union and when the actual election is held. Other labor leaders insist that ending the secret ballot election remains essential.

Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern, one of the prime advocates among national labor leader for the bill as originally written, vowed to keep lobbying Congress to include the card-check provision in the final version of the bill when it comes to a floor vote.

"As we have said from day one, majority signup is the best way for workers to have the right to choose a voice at their workplace," he said in a statement. "The Employee Free Choice Act is going through the usual legislative process, and we expect a vote on a majority signup provision in the final bill or by amendment in both houses of Congress."

The card provision caused the most ire among business leaders, some of whom lobbied against the bill or called for a version that would stiffen penalties for employers who interfere in NLRB elections and shorten the time between the petition and the election but not require employers to recognize card checks.

'Streamlining a Hopeful Sign'

Communications Workers of America Vice President Bill Henning said that while card-check was an important provision of the bill, unions would still benefit if the other provisions were enacted.

"Streamlining the process so that the employer can't take workers through this torturous several-month process, that's a hopeful sign," he said in a phone interview. "If the labor leadership is comfortable that this meets our needs, I am cautiously optimistic that it will. I think ideally, at the end of the day, no one should have to say more than I want to join a union. That's what signing a card is. It's an election."

Business groups also oppose a provision of the bill that would require binding arbitration if an agreement cannot be reached for the first union contract.

Complain of Harassment

In lobbying for EFCA, labor leaders have argued that while many workers try to form unions, they are usually thwarted when employers harass and threaten workers before the election, because the penalties employees face are not severe enough.

Barack Obama vowed during last year's election campaign to make passing EFCA a priority for his administration. The U.S. House of Representatives passed EFCA in 2007 and it enjoyed support from a majority of Senate Democrats, but some observers noted that it was easier for moderate Democrats who had received sizable contributions from business groups to vote for the bill because they knew then-President George W. Bush would veto it.