I love YouTube. Tom Allen, a democratic candidate in Maine, is caught on this video showing off his complete lack of understanding of basic labor laws. I guess those union campaign contributions can warp someone’s perspecive, but geesh at least READ the talking points…
Here he not only gets the current law COMPLETELY WRONG, but also fails to mention the key provisions of the Employee Free Choice Act and what it really means for American businesses.
Allen says that companies regularly delay election by 2 or 3 years. Certainly there are extreme cases where elections are delayed by the NLRB process, but the VAST majority of the time elections occur in less than 42 days from the date the petition is filed. And companies have no power to delay elections. Unions are the only ones who can block an election (this is done by filing what is called a “blocking charge” with the Board, and most of the time this is filed by a union for the express purpose of delaying an election they think they are going to lose).
What Allen probably meant to say before he went off the talking points was that companies engage in all kinds of misconduct which forces unions to delay elections. While there are times that the final vote certification is delayed by post-election objections (often these cases show that union misconduct prevented a fair vote) the vote process, in the vast majority of cases, occurs reasonably smoothly. Oh, and unions win a substantial majority of these elections.
Also, Allen tries to pass off the EFCA as “only” about card-check union organizing as an option while mentioning nothing about the provisions forcing government-arbitrated contracts or penalties aimed only at management.
I’m sure this candidate has some redeeming qualities, but understanding of basic labor law is not one of them.
