America's union-busters on the warpath

[DainBramaged]

Corporate America's anti-union crusaders have raised $200 million to combat the Employee Free Choice Act.


THE U.S. corporate class has always been notorious for its ferocious opposition to unions. And true to form, business leaders reacted with collective hysteria to the introduction of legislation in the House and Senate on March 10 that would make it just a bit easier for workers to unionize.


The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) would allow unions to win recognition once a majority of workers at a given workplace signs union cards, rather than allowing managers to force their workers to suffer through a drawn-out union election by secret ballot.

Employers typically prefer to force a union election because it allows them to delay the decision by months while they fire union supporters and force their workers to endure "captive audience" meetings with managers, who threaten to close down the company or move elsewhere in the case of a union victory.

EFCA would also compel recalcitrant employers to bargain with unions, by imposing binding arbitration if there is no agreement reached 120 days after a union wins recognition. This is necessary because roughly half of all new unions never get a contract due to their managements' refusal to bargain in good faith.

The Chamber of Commerce has called EFCA a "firestorm bordering on Armageddon." In an October 28 interview on CNBC, John McCain pledged to veto EFCA if elected president, calling it "dangerous for America, it's dangerous to small business. And I think it's a threat to one of the fundamentals of democracy."

http://socialistworker.org/2009/03/26/americas-union-busters