I’m deeply concerned. I cannot give Big Labor credit for the meanderings that have led to this juncture, but I believe opponents of the mis-named Employee Free Choice Act have stumbled into a trap. If we (all American businesses) are not careful, the jaws of the trap will soon clamp tight around our necks.
It seems business interests have done a pretty good job of throwing a wrench in the works of the Big Labor lobby pushing for the EFCA. Many prominent Democrats have been pressured into backing away from the current version of act. The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, formed by more than 500 business and conservative organizations, coordinated the effort to fight the card check bill, spending at least $10 million. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce on its own earmarked $20 million in 2008 & 2009 to defeat the bill, and spent $35 million in the last election cycle to help business-friendly lawmakers into power.
The unions themselves even seem to be at each others throats over the issue, with the head of one union complaining that Andy Stern and the SEIU began to discuss compromise before other unions were consulted.
One of the biggest shortfalls of the campaign, though, has been to allow the proponents to set the rhetoric for the debate. The unions have “won the high ground” by creating the impression that they are somehow at a disadvantage when it comes to organizing outcomes. They mis-used phony statistics and ignored actual data from the National Labor Relations Board to paint a picture to the American public that the debate was about equality of opportunity and a “setting right” of something that was broken. The opponents took the bait (yes – I DO give Big Labor and their consultants credit for setting this up – the liberal camp has been far superior to the conservative in using language to frame debate for quite some time!) and began to argue about the undemocratic nature of “card check” without ever refuting that there was a problem in the first place!
The truth is that unions last year won about 2/3’s of elections held, and most elections were held within about 38 days. Earlier claims that employees speaking on behalf of unions were fired in 25% of organizing campaigns are an outright lie. Problem? There is no problem for unions, other than the fact that Americans increasingly don’t want them and thus don’t vote for them!
Back to the the trap. Businesses have been focused on defeating legislation, and it is a necessary and valient effort. However, in the end, they will lose this battle. The deck is simply stacked too far in the favor of Big Labor proponents. The administration is rife with union-friendly personnel at every level – from administrators and bureacrats right up to the elected representatives, including the president. All Big Labor has to do is come up with a “compromise” that seems not to effect the voting process (as it is suggested will be the case with mail-in ballots), that shortens the election cycle and retains some aspect of forced arbitration, and they will say, “no this doesn’t level the playing field, but we’ll make due with this.” Democrats to were backed to the wall by business leaders in their states will then say, “Hey, American is about fair, and this is a fair compromise to level the field. We kept the secret ballot. Are you trying to be greedy?!”
Trap snaps shut. Unions will now have more freedom, including possibly equal access to the workplace to campaign, and stiffer penalties enforced against employers but not unions. Rules are still stacked against business like they are now (unions can “offer” more benefits, businesses can’t), and now they have both hands tied behind their backs.
Again – I applaud the efforts of business to oppose the legislation. But, they had better brace for the storm. The ground will shift under them. They had better be about the business now of making themselves impervious to union organizing from the inside, so they can weather that storm.
