I have been told for a few years now that I should start a blog. So here goes. I have read a number of blogs and they are basically pretty boring and who knows, by now you may already be bored with this one.
I am an HR geek and like it.
If, after telling you that I am an HR geek, you are still reading, then you just may be one of the people who will read this now and again.
I am also a bit of an activist. I get bothered by things that I think are wrong and want to reach out to others to help me get the word out. My latest mission is to stop the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) bill from becoming law. This bill, if passed, would take away an employee's right to vote for or against a union with a secret ballot. Since 1947, employees had a choice to vote for or against a union to represent them to negotiate contracts regarding wages, hours and working conditions. Votes were cast on a piece of cardboard behind a screen or with a curtain around them so no one could se how the employee voted.
Employees have always been FREE to vote as they please. The new law is not a free choice at all as all of the union organizers would know who signed for a union card and who didn't. The union organizer will also put undue pressure on those who do not sign a card until they sign one. As soon as the union gets one more than half of the employees to sign a union card, the union will be certified as the bargain representative for the employees. Not allowing secret ballot elections is un-American and just plain wrong. Are our esteemed lawmakers in the House of Representatives and Senate so naive that they think that union organizers will play nice and not use threats and intimidation to force people to sign union cards?
Unions have started advertising on TV about job security and better wages and benefits. Who are they kidding?
Put yourself in the shoes of a small business owner who has built a decent business and employs 15 people. You find that 8 of them have just signed union cards and now, instead of dealing with each person individually, you have to ignore your business for three months to negotiate a contract with a union. Why would you do such a thing? Would you consider closing your business, selling it or maybe moving the operation to another country?
Every time I see the Employee Free Choice Act commercial, I get sick. There's a good chance it will pass. Check out this article - http://mckenziehr.com/enews/december2008.htm
Or write your Congressional Representative and your Senator - follow the links below:
Members of the U.S. Senate -http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Members of the U.S. House if Representatives - http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW.shtml
Thanks for Reading Bob's First Blog
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I don't necessarily disagree with what you wrote. The elimination of the secret ballot is probably not a good thing. But there are other parts of the bill, the most important of which is the strengthening of already existing laws that prevent companies and management from intimidating workers. Check out this article for an example: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2009/0901.frank.html
ReplyDeleteLook, middle class and lower middle class wages have been stagnant for over a decade while wages of the top 10% have skyrocketed. Unions are perfect, but if nothing else, they are effective at balancing the playing field. And right now, a bit of balancing is nothing but a good thing.
And yes, they may hurt businesses on the margins. But businesses can hurt employees too. As that story shows, when companies act in good faith, unions aren't needed. When companies start to demand too much, for too little, for no good reason or in a stupid or harmful way, thats when unions are needed. Right now, union laws are nearly toothless. This law can change it.
Don't be surprised to see the 'card check' disappear in negotiations. I wouldn't be surprised if that was its purpose all along.
Good point, Matt, I read the article you provided a link to and yes there are a few companies that do whatever they can to keep a union out. What Rite Aid did in this example is wrong. I also believe that a company that gets a union deserves it.
ReplyDeleteThe part of the act that I do not like is doing away with a secret ballot. A company should have the opportiunity to state their side of the story and then let the employees vote based on the information from both perspectives.
With that said, I hope you are correct that the card check portion of the bill goes away because I would not have a problem with this. Having been through a number of union orgainizing campaigns, I have seen first hand knowledge of the hardhanded tactics used by unions. I know many people who signed union cards to get the union off their back so they could vote against it.
During a union campaign, the union can make any pie in the sky promises they want without penalties. However, an employer commits an unfair labor practice if it threatens employees, makes promises of good things to come if the employees vote the union down, interrogate employees on their union sympathies or spies by trying to listen in on conversations or standing outside the union hall at a organization meeting to see who is attending.
In the article, the Right Aid employees voted for the union in spite of the company violating all of the rules. The union had other options that they obviously did not take advantage of.