Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)

Subscribe to Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)

As we predicted in our September 14 piece on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), organized labor’s increased pressure on Congress to pass such legislation is starting to bear fruit.  At this week’s AFL-CIO convention, Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), a leader in the Democrats’ effort to forge a bill that can withstand a Republican…

While many suspected that the Employee Free Choice Act (“EFCA”) might become law within the first 100 days of the new Administration, that has not come to pass. Indeed, with the focus in Congress on the recession and the Administration’s push for healthcare reform, EFCA seems to have been all but forgotten. Like the disappearing canine in the old childhood song that we all remember, “Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone,” EFCA seems to be lost in the Congressional agenda. 

But has it been forgotten? As we headed into Labor Day, EFCA emerged in the news. Although Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced last week that EFCA was unlikely to be considered until some time next year because Congress had “too many other things on [its] plate,”1 staunch supporters of the bill within organized labor beg to differ. Indeed, Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, was quoted in The New York Times as saying that he not only expected to see EFCA pass, but that it would still include “card-check” — the provision, widely attacked by Republicans and the business community — that would mandate union representation on employees without any secret ballot election in which employees could vote.2 While EFCA may be on the back burner, for now it is unlikely that labor will let it remain there for long. Continue Reading The Employee Free Choice Act: An Update

Seeking to impose dramatic changes in how employers are unionized and who writes an employer’s first contract with a union, Democrats in the House and Senate yesterday re-introduced the Employee Free Choice Act (“EFCA”). The bill (H.R. 1409, S. 560) is identical to legislation that passed the House in 2007 as H.R. 800.

EFCA would make three radical changes to the National Labor Relations Act:

  • First, the bill would permit unions to obtain certification through a mandatory card check reviewed by Regional Offices of the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”), rather than through a secret ballot election held and closely monitored by the Board. Predictably, the proposed legislation would not allow employees seeking decertification of a union to use such card check procedures; employees who wished to oust a union would instead be required to vote in an election.
  • Second, EFCA would allow an arbitration panel to write the first labor contract between an employer and a union where the parties themselves cannot do so. In particular, if the parties had not reached agreement on their own within 90 days, either side could ask the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service to mediate the contract and, if no contract was in effect 30 days later, an arbitration panel would step in and write the contract for the parties. Any such contract would remain in effect for two years.
  • Third, the bill would change the procedures and penalties for alleged violations arising out of union organizing campaigns. NLRB Regional Directors, acting at their own discretion, would be allowed to seek injunctive relief against employers for such alleged violations. The Board would be required to assess both back pay and double liquidated damages on employers who discharge employees during an organizing campaign. The Board would also have authority to assess a civil penalty of up to $20,000 per violation of Section 8(a)(1) or (3) of the Act that substantially interferes with the union organizational process during the period of organizing and, after certification or recognition of a union, until a first contract is signed.

Like its predecessor, EFCA requires that the Board certify a union once it finds that most of an employer’s employees in a unit appropriate for collective bargaining have signed valid authorization cards designating a particular union as their representative. In other words, if a union submitted cards to the Board signed by 50 percent plus one of the employees in an appropriate bargaining unit, the Board would be required to certify the union as the representative of all employees in that unit without holding any secret ballot election. The proposed legislation, like the prior bill, is silent on what sort of authorization cards would be valid, and directs the Board to develop language for such cards and procedures for determining their validity without setting any deadline for the Board to do so. The current House version of EFCA also does not indicate how traditional representation issues involving the scope and composition of bargaining units will be determined. Under current NLRB procedures, these issues are determined by means of a representation case hearing that results in a written decision by a Regional Director, which is subject to review by the NLRB.Continue Reading Organized Labor Gets Its Wish: Congress Introduces the Employee Free Choice Act

In perhaps no U.S. presidential election in recent memory has the outcome been more important to a change in our basic labor law, the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA” or “Act”). Predictions are that if Sen. Obama is elected President and the Democrats take control of Congress, the crown jewel in labor’s legislative agenda, the Employee Free Choice Act, which passed the House last year but fell short in the Senate,1 could become the law of the land.2

The Employee Free Choice Act (“EFCA”), as passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, has three major features that make sweeping changes in the current provisions of the NLRA. First, the Act will permit unions to obtain certification through a mandatory card check conducted by Regional Offices of the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”). Second, EFCA will impose first contracts through interest arbitration where the parties are unable to agree on the terms of such agreements. Third, EFCA will amend certain provisions of the Act to permit NLRB Regional Directors, acting at their own discretion, to seek injunctive relief against employers for alleged violations arising out of union organizing campaigns. The Board will be required to assess both back pay and double liquidated damages on employers who discharge employees during an organizing campaign. In addition, the Board will have authority to assess a civil penalty of up to $20,000 per violation of Section 8(a)(1) or (3) of the Act that substantially interferes with the union organizational process during the period of organizing and, after certification or recognition of a union, until a first contract is entered into. Each of these changes and its significance is examined below.Continue Reading The Employee Free Choice Act: The Crown Jewel of Organized Labor’s Legislative Agenda