The Proposed Employee Free Choice Act: Strengthening The American Middle Class Or Tyranny By Union Organizations?

Abstract

Presently before Congress is the proposal Employee Free Choice Act which would amend the National Labor Relations Act in the following ways: 

(1)  By requiring employers to recognize a union after a majority of employees sign authorization cards for union representation.  Under the present system the employer is not required to recognize the union on the basis of authorization cards and can ask for a secret ballot election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board. 

(2)  Provide for mediation and arbitration if the parties are not successful in negotiating a first contract after the union is recognized.  The present system does not provide for mandatory impasse resolution procedures for first contract negotiations. 

(3)  Authorize civil fines of up to $20,000 per violation and awards to employees discharged for union activities of    “three times back pay.”  Under the present law fines for violating the law are much smaller than the proposed legislation and workers can only get back pay, les than what they earned from other employment, during the period after they were wrongfully discharged. 

Over the past thirty years there has been an increasing inequality of income distribution in the United States and an erosion of employer provided health care and pension benefits for non-union as well as union employees.  Strengthening the ability of workers to unionize will have a spillover impact on the members of the middle class, non-union and union in terms enhancing real income gains, as well as preserving and enhancing existing pension benefits and health care.