Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

by Christina Lovato, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

Today in a discussion titled "Consequences of the Employee Free Choice Act: Union and Management Perspectives" experts expressed why the act would not be beneficial to employees but harmful.

James Sherk, a Bradley Fellow in Labor Policy in the Center for Data Analysis at The Heritage Foundation said, "The act replaces secret ballot organizing elections with card checks. It would also take the free collective bargaining out of the hands of the unions and employers."

The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) was proposed on February 5, 2007, in the House by Chairman George Miller of the Education and Labor Committee. EFCA passed the House in March 2007 by a vote of 241-185 but then died in the Senate in June 2007. Since then, organized labor has made the EFCA its top legislative target.

Homer L. Deakins, Jr., Managing Shareholder at Ogletree Deakins, said that the bill is basically made up of two goals. "Its major objective is to deny employees a free choice and to substitute what has been a free choice by a secret ballot of election." He went on to say that the second objective and purpose to this bill is to neutralize employers. "The only group that is a beneficiary of this law is organized labor. Everyone else gives up rights. The employer loses the right to basically make their case to the employees and it also says to employers that they will be penalized for misconduct during an organizing campaign in an effort to keep them neutral."