Posts tagged 'Employee Free Choice Act'

March 25, 2009

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Labor Movement Worries EFCA May Fail

Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter, who in 2007 voted to invoke cloture on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), came out yesterday and said his vote will be "no" this time around. That leaves the Democrats--Labor's mouthpiece and sometime lackey--with 58 (59 if and when Al Franken arrives) votes to end a sure Republican filibuster. Unfortunately, 60 votes are required. There's another way to ...

March 21, 2009

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Business Group Offers Alternative to Employee Free Choice Act

EFCA Employee Free Choice Act

Starbuck's, Whole Foods and Costco have floated a proposal to level the playing field, as they term it, in union organizing. The group rejects two prongs of the proposed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)--the card-check and binding arbitration provisions--and keeps in place the current system of secret balloting. What they do retain from the EFCA is the provision for increased penalties on emplo...

March 13, 2009

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EFCA Could Unionize Small Businesses

EFCA Employee Free Choice Act small business

The 1935 National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), commonly referred to as the Wagner Act, exempted small businesses from union organization, but the definition of small business has not been updated since 1959. The exemption ends when a small, non-retail business grosses $50,000 in a single year; for retail operations, the figure is $500,000 a year. However, the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) now...

March 12, 2009

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Dems Looking to Modify the Employee Free Choice Act?

EFCA Employee Free Choice Act

The business-feared, loved-by-unions Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) was introduced in both the House and the Senate on Tuesday. Passage by the House seems a done deal, but in the Senate success hinges on getting 60 votes to choke off a filibuster. With 58 (and potentially 59 with Al Franken) Democratic Senators, invoking cloture wouldn't seem like such a high hurdle, but a handful of Senate D...

March 11, 2009

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China: Laboratory for EFCA-Style Unionization

China EFCA Employee Free Choice Act unions

Can't blame 'em. Business owners in China's manufacturing belt, their businesses up in smoke in the worldwide recession, are fleeing the country and leaving their workers high and dry--and yuan-less--rather than cope with China's restrictive labor laws. Of course, you can also call them rats for absconding with their companies' loot while leaving their workforce with no money to survive on. Ch...

March 9, 2009

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The Road to 'Armageddon' Starts Today

Armageddon EFCA Employee Free Choice Act unions

Sources tell Personnel Concepts that the much-feared-by-business Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) will be introduced in the House of Representatives today. Well, nothing new here. EFCA made it through the House's 435 members once before and passed with flying colors, but its fate in the Senate may be another matter altogether. Just today, the Wall Street Journal reported that "Labor Bill...

December 18, 2008

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What Exactly Is Free Choice?

EFCA Employee Free Choice Act unionization unions

One big labor law change anticipated in the Barack administration is enactment of the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), but like the Holy Roman Empire, which was neither holy, Roman nor an empire, does the EFCA really embody freedom and choice? For those on the business side of things--company owners and managers, et al.--the answer is no: The unions will just coerce employees into si...

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