The Other Big Debate: EFCA

In speaking with labor attorneys, labor consultants, CEOs, Plant Managers and HR professionals across the country on a daily basis, I encounter a lot of questions and comments with regards to the Employee Free Choice Act.

Labor attorneys and consultants want to know what resources (off-the-shelf or custom) Projections has to best explain it on a CEO level, a Supervisor level and directly to employees.  Followed by: "What do you think is going to happen in the future (with regards to the EFCA) and what products will I have to deal with it then?"

The CEO's, Plant Managers and HR professionals are literarily divided into three camps.

1) EFCA?--never heard of it, what is it, and how does it affect my company?

2) We are  proactively engaged in educating our workforce on the EFCA, right now (before the election).

3) Yes, we are keeping an eye on the EFCA and the election, but we want to just wait and see what happens next. 

So what does my crystal ball tell me?  I don't know, I shake it and it appears to be snowy...oh wait that's a snow globe.  Seriously my personal opinion is that you cannot go wrong communicating to your employees and creating positive employee relations--period.  But, when you do, you should also communicate  your company's  labor position, your union free philosophy, pending HR or labor legislation that may impact your business and your workforce and why it important to know this information.  It is not personal, it is not political, it is business and it will impact every employee and their family in one way or another.  

Unions are big business and employees need to understand that above all else.  Unions are a business and they need employees to have a problem that seemingly only a union can solve.  The price?  Dues money from the employees (not the company) in the billions annually.  In the absence of an actual problem to solve, one must be "created" or an entire corporate campaign masterminded to do one thing--Unionize the employees to get the dues money rolling in.  

In the simplest of explanations, the path to getting employees to vote in a union election is both timely and expensive to unions and today involves 3 steps. 

1) Get enough cards signed (30%) 

2) Petition for a election with the NLRB 

3) Hold a secret ballot election.  

In this process, unions currently win almost 60% of the elections.  So why the EFCA?  Why are unions spending $200 million to elect Obama, gain Senate seats and promote the EFCA?  Because no matter how many elections they win, the number of employees voting to become union members is plummeting, from 33% in the 1950's to 7.5% today.  Obama, a democratic Senate and the EFCA is their last hope.  The EFCA would eliminate Step 2 and 3.  Step 1) Get 50% plus 1 of cards signed and no election necessary, the company is now unionized.

There are two opposing articles or blogs on USA Today about the Employee Free Choice Act.

The first salvo came from USA Today with the headline "Our view on labor laws: No way to form a union.  Workers deserve to hear both sides, vote in private."  It's a one minute read unless you read all the comments (and I suggest you do as they are generally interesting perspectives).

The Opposing View: Give workers free, fair choice is written by none other than John Sweeney himself.  Here is the President of the AFL-CIO given a free public forum to communicate his position on the EFCA and he blows it.  Or so I think.  As I read both articles I realized that Sweeney doesn't say anything justifying the EFCA because there is no actual justification that makes any sense.  Unions are like a child that wants a cookie right after having dessert.  It doesn't have to make any sense, they just want it.

The only point I am going to argue or comment on is one where Sweeney tells half the story. He says, "Workers can still vote in a secret-ballot union election under the Employee Free Choice Act."  Yes, if the union gets 50% plus 1 of the cards signed by employees and IF both the Union AND the Company agree to a secret ballot election, then and only then will the NLRB hold an election.  Now I can't wait to see under what scenario will BOTH the Union and the Company agree to that, especially if the union has more than 50% of the cards signed.  Oh, and Mr Sweeney, that's still not a choice made by the employees--it's the Union and the Company agreeing to an election.

Bottom line: Communicate your union free philosophy (video, website) to your Supervisors and to your employees--both existing employees and new hires from day one-- during the onboarding process.  Start today before the election, start in November after the election, start after the first of the year around the inauguration, start in the spring.  Just start communicating to your employees.  Because what my crystal ball does tell me is that no matter who is elected President, the EFCA will pass (maybe as is or maybe a modified version) in the Spring or early Summer and if you haven't begun some process on communicating to your supervisors and employees about your position and the immediate dangers of signing a card then you might want to find out about what the rest of the EFCA holds for your company: changes in Collective Bargaining, Mediation, Arbitration, Decertification, Penalties for Violations...