The Employee Free Choice Act 101

Written January 8, 2010 - Roger R. Carter 
By David Madland, Karla Walter

Increasingly, the right of workers to form unions to collectively bargain with their employer is becoming an employee concern. More than half of US employees say they would vote to join a union if they could, however they are prevented from doing so within the private sector. Many find that employer intimidation or corrupt election methods are the source of the dilemma and they want to have a legitimate avenue for counterbalancing the systems that are in place by their employer. Naturally, many corporations and small businesses alike push away the idea of giving their employees a voice and say in the operations of a company however it is said that without strong unions, wages lag, race and gender pay gaps widen and voter turnout decreases as inequality increases.

To combat this issue, there is now the Employee Free Choice Act reform which aims to protect workers’ right to form unions through a workplace majority sign-up process while protecting them from employer threats. Because of employers’ hesitation to have their power challenged by unionized workers, three myths exist to bring down the reform for workers:

1) The reform is undemocratic because it eliminates the secret ballot
and allows unions to intimidate workers.

2) Binding arbitration prevents negotiation by imposing unreasonable
time limits and will lead to the imposition of uncompetitive contracts.

3) Increasing unionization, especially during the recessions, will harm
workers and the economy by making business uncompetitive.

Take a look at the following article to find the rebuttals for the Employee Free Choice Act!