EFCA and the Stock Market

I'm in Phoenix this week meeting with hundreds of CEO's of mostly small to mid-size companies and am once again stunned to learn what they know or don't know about the Employee Free Choice Act. Many have no idea what the EFCA is and that is easy enough to address, so more on that in a minute. An equal number have heard about it and do realize what a disaster it means for their company, their employees and now for the entire U.S. economy's recovery. The CEOs that frighten me the most are the ones that answer "Yes, I am familiar with the EFCA...that trade union thing...we don't feel that it will effect our company that much."

So now I realize that I'm talking to 3 kinds of CEOs. The "EFCA-educated" CEO, the "EFCA-uneducated" CEO and the "Holy Crap I should slap you" CEO.

Educated and proactive CEOs, HR personnel and managers, I applaud your efforts. Stay on top of it as the target is always evolving.

The uneducated or "(EFCA) just not quite on your radar yet" CEOs, HR personnel and managers... well, one of the three of you needs to educate the other two before its too late. By now, the EFCA topic should be coming at you from all directions: information from sources in Labor Relations, HR organizations, CEO forums, competitors, vendors and in news Headlines. Start paying attention, read up on the EFCA and share the information with the right people in your organization. It is your responsibility and is really no different than having a Disaster Preparedness Plan for your company. Run the what if scenarios and if you are unsure about what to do, contact a labor relations attorney or an employee communication specialist that is an expert in labor relations. I happen to know one with 30 years experience...

As for the Holy Crap I should slap you CEO. Perhaps you should cancel your subscriptions to USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and Time and save your money because you are going to need it.  Headline News today:  "Citigroup downgraded Walmart Stores to "hold" from "buy" saying the proposed card check (EFCA) legislation would increase labor costs and could be a significant drag to earnings for the world's largest retailer."  Read it again, except insert your company name for Walmart.  If you don't think this can affect your company, you couldn't be more wrong.  Walmart's stock was just altered based on PENDING legislation not PASSED legislation.  This legislation could be months from being passed, so can you imagine your company being in this position and whose to say your company's stock in not going to be altered?  For anyone that questions what effect the EFCA will have on jobs and the economy have to ask why would Citigroup or brokers in general downgrade a stock over the pending EFCA unless it were really bad.  If there was any debate, no broker would venture down this path.  The EFCA is a disaster for all American companies and will seriously delay any economic recovery in the U.S. 

Many pro-EFCA pundits will spin that this is a move on Walmart's part to rattle the political players in both the House and Senate.  Take a stock hit to make a point? Maybe.  And if so, again to me it shows just how important the battle is against the EFCA.  Take a proactive stance before you simply can't.

Following People who are Following People who are Lost

There have been rumors flying for the last week or so about the EFCA being introduced today (March 9th). It's not going to happen today. Some day, but not today. How do I know? I don't but here's my thinking...

For one, I don't pay a whole lot of attention to AFL-CIO blogs that anyone can write.

"On Monday, March 9th Congressman George Mill and Senator Ted Kennedy are expected to introduce the Employee Free Choice Act into the House of Representatives." The odds of SENATOR Ted introducing a bill into the HOUSE are slim because he is a SENATOR in the SENATE...just a little something I learned in High School...

Second, I don't pay a whole lot of attention to puppet-boy and Vice-President Joe Biden.

"...I have a simple, basic belief, one that we're going to work hard to put into action: If a union is what you want, a union you're entitled to have." From his speech to the AFL-CIO Executive Council. Really? He told the AFL-CIO, "If you want a union, you can have a union? Aren't you guys THE union? I going to guess that they all spontaneously applauded...

Third, why introduce in the House when the Senate is still up in the air?

Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) on ABC's "This Week" said, "The card check labor bill may not have the 60 votes needed to get out of the Senate." Hell, even Al Franken is still not confirmed in the Senate (I smell an appeal), don't you think they might wait for this Democrat's vote?

Fourth, advertising tells everything. Why would the unions continue to spend millions of dollars in advertising to "educate the public" on how misunderstood unions and their plight are when it comes to evil corporations pillaging their clearly underpaid and uninsured employees? BECAUSE the EFCA spin is a HARD SELL. If the EFCA was easy legislation and if what the unions claim is true--that 60 million employees will sign up for unions once the EFCA is passed...then why all this angst? Why not introduce the EFCA, I don't know, like... today, for example? Yes, introduce it in the House today, pass it on Thursday and then on to the Senate...

WHERE IT WOULD CURRENTLY IMPLODE! That's why.

And last, here's today's rumor for you: The Senate Health Committee is scheduled to host the first hearings of the legislative session on the EFCA starting tomorrow. This would come before the introduction of any formal piece of legislation--House or Senate. Senator Harking will chair the hearings in place of Senator Ted Kennedy. Perhaps the Senate will tackle the EFCA first and then the House as I said previously, get the Senate in order first by resolving Minnesota (Franken) and Illinois (Burris)...

Either way, stop speculating and take advantage of the time you have left to develop a labor relations strategy to effectively communicate your company's position on the EFCA to your managers, supervisors and yes to your employees. Because the rumor I'm starting says, "EFCA late summer, early fall..."

Joe Biden's Green Math

Vice-President Joe Biden says the $150 billion dollars that the government is investing along with $500 million in stimulus money for "green jobs" will make you rich.  And thanks to his inability to calculate math properly, unions see the path to green as well.  That's a lot of green dollar bills coming from new union members making $50 an hour according to the VP.

Last Friday, at a summit in Philadelphia, Vice-President Joe Biden said people who make $20 per hour before a green jobs training program can make $50 per hour after.  He says that, on average, the clean-energy jobs pay 10 to 20 percent more than similar work outside the field.

Let me get out my abacus and do some calculating here...10% of $20 is $2 and $20% of $20 is $4, so move that over, carry the one and hey that's not $50, it's $22 to $24.  Missed it by that much...VP genius.

Now, let's see my wind and solar stocks are tanking because those companies have cut staff and stalled new projects.  Why? Because the credit crisis has tied up all the money and no banks are able to invest in renewable energy.  Nice going...

And comments in the press like this don't help, "Even if there's trouble in the short term, jobs are needed to fight climate change and spur economic growth."--CNN article.

Wow, here's your diploma Timmy, and now look on Monster.com for the jobs titled "Fight Climate Change paying $50 per hour."  Don't forget that the construction on any green industry projects receiving federal funding has to be done by union construction workers per mandates already executed by Obama, thus cutting out millions of existing nonunion construction employees.

So that 10 to 20 percent extra that math-wiz Biden promised, well that might cover your dues money that you will owe to all the unions controlling this massive "green" shell game.  It seems like the unions and its 16 million members will benefit way before the 160 million workers that actually make up the middle class.