The Denver Post‘s editorial today excoriated the so-called Employee Free Choice Act, which “would have junked 72 years of U.S. labor law and, for the first time, allowed the federal government to force employers and workers alike to sign union contracts without their consent.” The Post‘s editorial noted the Act “contained an offensive and little-known provision that would have allowed a government arbitrator to impose a two-year contract on businesses and workers that actually specified wages and working conditions. Neither the employer nor the workers could appeal the decision.”

In the process of encouraging Colorado’s federal legislators to block EFCA, the Post added:

The landmark National Labor Relations Act of 1935 established the procedure whereby if a majority of workers signed union authorization cards, an election would be held among the proposed bargaining unit to determine whether a majority, voting by secret ballot, wanted that union representation. HR 800 would have ended that election process and granted bargaining rights whenever the necessary cards were signed.

So HR 800 would allow workers to be forced into unions without even the right to vote – and could force workers and employers to accept a government-written contract after just 120 days of negotiations.

(Hat tip: Carter Wood at Shopfloor.org)