See here: (Link) Also here: (Link) NLRB asks Supreme Court to rule on decisions by 2-member board A news release from the National Labor Relations Board, "Supreme Court is asked to settle the question of two-member rulings by the NLRB": Washington, DC -- On behalf of the National Labor Relations Board, the Solicitor General of the United States today asked the Supreme Court to settle the question of whether the Board is authorized to issue decisions while three of its five seats remain v...

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: Here's the at-will, non-contracted and the unrepresented, unorganized worker: (Image) (Image) (Image) Here's the Bankers, Lawyers, Accountants, Politicians and CONTRACTED executives: (Image) (Image) (Image) (Image) (Image)

Source: WaPO: (Link) By Alec MacGillis Sunday, February 21, 2010 The anniversary of the $787 billion economic stimulus act came and went last week with unemployment still holding stubbornly close to 10 percent. The Democrats' universal health-care legislation lies in limbo on Capitol Hill. Where in all of this are the unions -- the historic guardians of the Democrats' economic agenda? Sidelined, sort of. Labor's top legislative priority, the Employee Free Choice Act, is languishing. Craig Bec...

"If Obama makes it to the White House, he may be tempted to take a Jimmy Carter-style dive or start bobbing and weaving like Bill Clinton to avoid another knock-down, drag-out fight with corporate America early in his administration." I recently came across an article in the United Mine Workers Journal denouncing the management bias of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and calling for labor law reform. Here’s how it described the workers’ rights violations that cry out for new legal rem...

(Link) It's been a lousy week for Tom Donohue and his pals over at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. For months now, Tom has been crisscrossing the country looking for corporate donations with which to launch a campaign to "remind, educate and persuade" Americans that the free enterprise system is what has made America great and is what will once again "lead us back to prosperity." Normally, it wouldn't take a $100 million propaganda effort to convince most Americans of the value of "individual...

(Link)/ Climate change isn’t the only battle leaders of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce:puke: are waging. The business group is also determined to block the nomination of union lawyer Craig Becker to the five-member National Labor Relations Board. The Chamber has been circulating a draft of an anti-Becker letter it plans to send to key senators today, trying to get as many signatures as it can from trade organizations. The letter, asking for a hearing on Becker’s nomination, is addressed to Se...

(Link) As the most sweeping reforms ever of our tattered health care system wind their way through Congress the majority of Americans who support these desperately needed measures must understand that failure at this crucial point will not only be a disaster for the nation, but also for the Democratic Party. The Democratic leadership, including President Barack Obama, must make it clear to the so-called Blue Dogs in both chambers that they better not obstruct, water down, or block health care r...

(Link) by Tom Szymanski June 14, 2009 The Bloomington Chamber of Commerce has followed the position taken by the Indiana and national Chambers of Commerce by publicly opposing the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). The EFCA is a piece of federal labor legislation aimed at rebalancing the power between workers and their employers in the workplace. EFCA would restore workers' rights lost due to unfair rulings by hostile Labor Board appointments, illegal tactics utilized by employers and the fact t...

(Link) It was reported Wednesday that in an attempt to save the 137-year old newspaper—and their jobs along with it—the Guild representing employees of the Boston Globe had agreed to dramatic wage and benefit concessions. The Guild members, including about 700 editorial, business and advertising employees, will begin voting on Thursday, May 7, and are expected to approve the contract. Among the concessions are substantial cuts in base salaries, mandatory unpaid furloughs, discontinuation ...

(Link) In a post on the Brad Peck attempts to argue against our point that corporate lobby groups - such as the Chamber itself - before they started assailing the process as a horrible, terrible, no good, very bad thing. One problem about his argument: it has no argument. Anti-worker groups have attacked the "first contract arbitration" portion of the Employee Free Choice Act. That provision seeks to stop employers from using endless foot-dragging against workers who have voted for a union,...

As much press as the "secret-ballot" gets, the problem is not with the election itself, but what occurs before and after the election (IMHO). Unions generally "win" more elections than they "lose"--Unions won 1195 representation elections, or 55.7 percent in fiscal 2007. The Employee Free Choice Act--A Human Rights Imperative US labor law currently permits a wide range of employer conduct that interferes with worker organizing. Enforcement delays are endemic, regularly denying aggrieved wor...

(Link) Scholars across the country are calling for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, in letters to Congress, symposiums, rallies, and roundtables starting this week. They will discuss how labor law has weakened over the last several decades, and why it is more important than ever to return to workers the freedom to form unions through the Employee Free Choice Act and to create an economy that works for everyone. Over 1,000 scholars from disciplines that run the gamut from economics to ...

(Link) U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, who sponsored legislation to make it easier for workers to join unions, said the main provision of the proposal may have to be dropped to get the votes to pass it. There isn’t enough support for a provision called card-check that would allow workers to bypass an election and form a union when a majority of them sign cards requesting one, Harkin said Monday in an interview. “Compromises are going to be made,” said Harkin, an Iowa Democrat. “It probably won’t be car...

Nancy Schiffer Associate General Counsel AFL-CIO Washington, D.C (Link) A WORKERS’ RIGHTS STATUTE IS ONLY AS GOOD AS ITS ENFORCEMENT The focus of a massive political and legislative assault spearheaded by America’s corporations is the proposed Employee Free Choice Act. This proposed legislation has generated the drama described on the preceding page and has clearly become the corporate community’s worst nightmare. The Employee Free Choice Act amends the National Labor Relations Act by removi...

(Link)/ As the Employee Free Choice Act builds momentum to passage, opponents of the workers’ freedom to form unions are getting desperate in their attempts to mislead and distort this critical bill. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has joined with the U.S. Council for International Business (USCIB) for its latest spin against the freedom to form unions. The two groups are promoting a paper written by Stefan Jan Marculewicz, a management-side attorney, asserting the Employee Free Choice Act would ...

(Link) American companies would stop expanding domestically and would instead look to grow overseas if the Employee Free Choice Act were to be signed into law, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce warned Friday. Speaking to a crowd of roughly 75 members of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce about what some call the “card check” bill, Tom Donohue said that the federal proposal — which would change union workplace-organizing rules —­ is a no-compromise piece of legislation. The nation...

X- posted in Labor: (Link) The "Card Check" Hullabaloo By Mike Whitney March 19, 2009-- Big business has launched a no-holds-barred propaganda blitz against the Employee Free Choice Act. Their goal is to scare people into believing that if the bill passes it will trigger higher unemployment and a deeper recession. According to opponents, there's even the threat of creeping socialism. The truth, of course, is far less dramatic. The Employee Free Choice Act o...

(Link)/ NEW YORK, NY - The proposed "card-check" bill currently before Congress, which would effectively eliminate secret ballots for employees to form unions, may violate longstanding international legal principles, according to a joint letter from two top industry groups. The United States Council for International Business (USCIB) and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have sent a letter ((Link)) to Congress spelling out how provisions of the Employee Free Choice Act contradict the principles of...

Citing an "independent quantitative analysis" by economist Dr. Anne Layne-Farrar who works for the Law and Economics Consulting Group (LECG), described as a "non-partisan economic consulting group in Chicago". Non-partisan. That's a good one. Dr Farrar notes on the first page of the report: "Financial support from The Alliance to Save Main Street Jobs is gratefully acknowledged". Hmmm. Who or what is "The Alliance to Save Main Street Jobs" you ask?: About the Alliance to Save Main Street Job...

And one very telling remark that OBLITERATES the BS meme that ...under the NLRA, as amended, the Federal Government did not have a role in determining the substantive provisions of a collective bargaining agreement. That was left exclusively to the parties. The Act required good faith bargaining and those provisions were policed by the NLRB... ...According to a poll recently taken by McLaughlin & Associates three out of four voters in union households oppose the card check provisions of EFC...

(Link)/ Robert J Battista, who served as Chairman on the * labor board for 5 years, and whose reward for a "Mission Accomplished" was a lucrative position with one of the leading Unionbusting Law firms, Littler Mendelson, recently answered some questions re: EFCA Jay: Of the three most contentious provisions of EFCA – (1) “card check” union certification, (2) binding interest arbitration if first contract isn’t reached, and (3) increased employer penalties for unfair labor practices – which d...

Interesting article from last August on BlueOregon.com ======================================================== EFCA and Secret Ballot Elections for Union Recognition Chris Lowe The Employee Free Choice Act of 2007 (EFCA) as passed in 2007 by the House of Representatives, but not passed in the Senate, amends the National Labor Relations Act, now incorporated into the U.S. Code as 29 U.S.C. §§ 151-169. In general, EFCA purports to do three things: to streamline union certification (section ...

From An American Rights at Work Report by Gordon Lafer, Ph.D. June 2005 FREE AND FAIR? HOW LABOR LAW FAILS U.S. DEMOCRATIC STANDARDS Principles of U.S. Democracy: Defining Fair Elections As the world’s first democracy, the United States has long served as the standard-bearer for defining what constitutes “free and fair” elections. But what exactly are these standards? While there are myriad practices that make up a democratic election — and many practices that vary from one state to another— a...

(Link) January 13, 9:09 PM by Ron Moore, DC Special Interests Examiner Opponents of the right to organize have framed their message against the Employee Free Choice Act as a defense of the secret ballot. It’s ironic that employers who spy on their employees, listen in on their phone calls and monitor their computer use have developed a sudden sensitivity to the right to privacy. The Employee Free Choice Act adds the right to choose to go to directly the bargaining table after a simple card ch...

(Link) by Michael H. Gottesman, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center. The proposed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) authorizes National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) certification of unions when a majority of employees have signed cards designating a union to represent them, and mandatory arbitration of the terms of a first collective bargaining agreement if the employer and union are unable to reach agreement on their own. Richard Epstein, America’s most prominent libertarian leg...

I have read in several pro-EFCA articles/blogs etc. that currently there is a provision where a Union can be DE-certified simply by presenting signed cards by a majority (50%+ 1) of the workers in the bargaining unit, but none provides the actual wording and/or a link to the NLRB's procedures to such a de-cert. I've tried to find one, but as of now have been SOL. Any DU'ers who may have any info on this, I would appreciate it if you would post it here or PM me, whichever you prefer. If it is tr...

(Link) Marie Cocco As Congress and the White House lurch toward possible approval of a loan package for the crippled auto industry, we are undoubtedly in store for more union-bashing. Note well that we did not hear any such tirades when vastly larger sums of taxpayer money -- with fewer strings attached -- were lavished upon the banks and financial industry wizards who created the credit crisis. Put aside for a moment the misinformation and outright untruths that characterize conservative atta...

(Link)/ By Nathan Newman - November 13, 2008, 10:18AM So some folks will say, hey labor law sounds good, but don't the business lobbies have a point that the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) proposed by labor and its supporters will undermine democracy by eliminating the secret ballot. I'll have a post soon about how the secret ballot will be fine and more used in workplaces if EFCA passes, but let's take the basic corporate argument headon. Under EFCA, instead of holding an election with a sec...