45 Reasons to Oppose the EFCA*

The Card Check Provision

(1) EFCA ignores organized labor’s 75-year track record of coercion in the context of organizing campaigns. Indeed, studies show that union officials were charged with approximately 3,700 separate allegations of coercion, threats, harassment, and violence in the 1990’s alone. In 2007, 5,992 ULP charges were filed against unions, and 84.4% alleged illegal restraint and coercion. 83% of those charges were filed by individual employees.

(2) EFCA does not purport to eliminate voter intimidation, but simply to provide unions with a monopoly over it. There are thousands of reported cases in which unions misled employees as to the true meaning of authorization cards, or coerced them into providing signatures. Many other situations go unreported, as employees are fearful of “outing” their colleagues supporting the union. Moreover, agency status must first be established before finding against a union under these circumstances, and the most egregious violations are often committed by overly zealous employees who believe they are operating in the union’s best interests.

(3) The bill would undo seven decades of legal precedent and effectively disenfranchise millions of employees overnight, while we are simultaneously fighting for more democracy in the representation process overseas. Just eight years ago, EFCA lead sponsor George Miller joined 15 colleagues in urging Mexico to recognize that “the secret ballot is absolutely necessary…to ensure that workers are not intimidated into voting for a union they might not otherwise choose.” Ironically, the authority of those same members of Congress derives from the secret ballot itself.