LaborPains.org

James Sherk at The Heritage Foundation writes about some of manipulative tactics used during card check campaigns.

Ford will save up to $500 million with the help of UAW concessions.  This is an interesting excerpt from the article:

The agreement trims average wages and benefits for UAW hourly workers to about $55 per hour this year, from more than $70 per hour when Ford was negotiating a watershed contract with the union two years ago.

Weren’t a lot of people saying that union wages were already at $55 an hour just recently?  Ford’s cuts may bring those claims into question again.  The savings didn’t appear out of thin air.

Save Our Secret Ballot is taking steps in Oklahoma and is ready for a vote in Utah.

Politico breaks down the political lines on EFCA.

The D.C. Examiner says that EFCA could mean Nixon-style wage and price controls through binding arbitration. Nice insight Examiner!

Some Democrats are open to compromise on EFCA.

An SEIU officer’s finances are brought under scrutiny in California.

The NBA looks ahead of time at labor negotiations in the next two years.

A retired union leader opposes card check:

“Doing away with the secret ballot is not good for the unions. It’s not good for any business. … Open voting creates an atmosphere of intimidation. It creates an atmosphere where people will use your opinion against you. I’ve seen the threats and I’ve actually seen the physical conflict, if you know what I mean, come from the business side and from the union side,” Catlett said. “I just don’t see how any process that is not private will protect the worker.”

From the Union Voice, here are the Senate co-sponsors of the deceptively-named Employee Free Choice Act:

Senator Daniel Akaka
Senator Mark Begich
Senator Barbara Boxer
Senator Sherrod Brown
Senator Roland Burris
Senator Robert Byrd
Senator Maria Cantwell
Senator Benjamin Cardin
Senator Tom Carper
Senator Bob Casey
Senator Chris Dodd
Senator Dick Durbin
Senator Russ Feingold
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand
Senator Tom Harkin
Senator Daniel Inouye
Senator Tim Johnson
Senator Ted Kaufman
Senator Edward Kennedy
Senator John Kerry
Senator Amy Klobuchar
Senator Frank Lautenberg
Senator Patrick Leahy
Senator Carl Levin
Senator Joe Lieberman
Senator Robert Menendez
Senator Jeff Merkley
Senator Barbara Mikulski
Senator Patty Murray
Senator Bill Nelson
Senator Jack Reed
Senator Harry Reid
Senator Jay Rockefeller
Senator Bernie Sanders
Senator Charles Schumer
Senator Jeanne Shaheen
Senator Debbie Stabenow
Senator Tom Udall
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Senator Ron Wyden

Here are the Senators that haven’t co-sponsored the bill (i.e. They think keeping secret ballots is a good idea, hopefully):

Senator Max Baucus
Senator Evan Bayh
Senator Michael Bennet
Senator Jeff Bingaman
Senator Kent Conrad
Senator Byron Dorgan
Senator Dianne Feinstein
Senator Kay Hagan
Senator Herb Kohl
Senator Mary Landrieu
Senator Blanche Lincoln
Senator Claire McCaskill
Senator Ben Nelson
Senator Mark Pryor
Senator Jon Tester
Senator Mark Udall
Senator Mark Warner
Senator Jim Webb

The key phrase is still in EFCA: …”The Board shall not direct an election but shall certify the individual or labor organization as the representative described in subsection.”

Click here to download the 2009 version of EFCA.

Jimmy Hoffa has never been one to mince words. Here is what he had to say about the deceptively-named Employee Free Choice Act’s introduction in Congress today:

“Since when is the secret ballot a basic tenet of democracy?”

Since ancient Greece, Jimmy.

Group Calls on Legislators to Oppose Bill that Would Effectively Eliminate the Secret Ballot and Cost Countless Jobs

Today, the Employee Freedom Action Committee (EFAC) criticized the legislators who are putting forth the deceptively named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), a bill which would effectively eliminate private voting in union organizing elections. EFCA is a blatant power grab being pushed by union leaders looking to make it easier to add dues paying members at the expense of employee privacy. The bill is to be introduced at a press conference this afternoon.

Earlier this month a poll showed that 82% of Americans do not want their job to be unionized, which demonstrates that there is no national appetite for legislation to dramatically change the organization process in the unions’ favor. In addition, a new study out last week by Dr. Anne Layne-Farrar showed that in the first year after the implementation of EFCA, this job killer would cost the nation 600,000 full-time employees and permanently shrink the number of working Americans.

These facts are clear to the 100 editorial boards across the country who have opposed this undemocratic legislation, in stark contrast to the paltry three that have supported it. Even the former Democratic Party Presidential nominee, Sen. George McGovern (D-SD), has vocally opposed this legislation, saying that EFCA “cannot be justified.”

“These legislators should respect the overwhelming majority of Americans who support retaining the secret ballot and have no interest in joining a union,” said Employee Freedom Action Committee Executive Director Rick Berman. “They should be ashamed for backing legislation that will not only strip employees of their right to a secret ballot, but will cost the nation over a half million jobs, and force innumerable Americans into a union against their will.”

To schedule an interview with Rick Berman about the deceptively named Employee Free Choice Act call Tim Miller at 202-420-7864 or email Miller@employeefreedom.org

Rachel Maddow has always been in the bag for big labor, even before she joined MSNBC. Despite that, I gave her more credit than this. During last night’s show she told her viewers to “read the bill,” with the bill being the deceptively-named Employee Free Choice Act. Then, claiming that it’s “really simple to explain,” she doesn’t turn to the bill, but rather to Rep. George Miller’s fact sheet, which was issued by the Democrats on the House Labor and Education Committee. In fact, she reads it over and over again, all the while implying that she’s “reading the bill.” Here’s the video:

If Maddow’s viewers actually took her advice and “read the bill”—not the partisan hack job “fact” sheet she pretended was the bill—they would read that if a union turns in cards representing more than 50% of a company’s employees, “the Board shall not direct an election but shall certify the individual or labor organization as the representative described in subsection.“

The complete portion of EFCA Section 2 (because I’m not hiding anything) after the jump.

(more…)

With over 100 grassroots events planned across the country for this week, big labor is pushing hard for EFCA.  On the fence states are specifically targeted.

Bringing the AFL-CIO and Change to Win back together “has only a 50-50 chance of success.”

Could EFCA divide Colorado Democrats?

A member of SEIU thinks the stock market is responding favorably to the introduction of EFCA.  Here’s a quick lesson in economics:  Markets react to news.  Everybody already knew EFCA was going to be introduced soon.  The market cannot favorably or negatively react today to something which was old news months ago.  Now… finding out that several key Democrats besides the usual suspects are shaky on EFCA.  That’s news.