Card Check | Center for Health Transformation

Adobe Flash Player is required to view this media.

The so-called “Employee Free Choice Act” (EFCA) was introduced in Congress in 2005, and again in 2007, although at that time it was met by a Republican filibuster in the Senate and never passed. It is expected that in the coming months, this will again become an issue at the forefront of public debate. The EFCA deals with the method of card check, a system of organizing employees into a labor union.

Federal labor laws regarding unions, in place since the 1930s, include the following: the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) holds secret ballot elections on whether or not employees wish to organize if at least 30 percent of employees sign union authorization forms, or “cards.” Employers and unions are given a chance to engage in debate over several months, and a secret ballot election follows.

Under the proposed legislation, the secret ballot would be eliminated and the NLRB would recognize the union as official if a majority of employees have signed the cards. Opponents such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce argue that the card check system will enable a practice of coercion, in which employees are pressured into signing the cards, often in front of union organizers. Once the union organizers have collected over 50 percent of employee signatures, the NLRB must recognize the union and a secret ballot election becomes irrelevant. At issue, say opponents, is employee right to privacy. According to polls cited by the Wall Street Journal, over 80% of Americans oppose outright elimination of secret ballots for union voting.

Supporters of the legislation, like the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), say that card check gives workers more power through collective bargaining and labor-friendly federal rules – critical in the current state of the U.S. economy. Card check comes, in part, by labor unions as a response to their declining membership. Union organizers cite the existing laws around creating a union too time and labor intensive. The EFCA, they say, promotes free and fair union elections by making it harder for employers to intimidate workers during the debate period prior to the secret ballot elections. AFL-CIO states that 25% of employers illegally fire workers for union activities during organizing campaigns.

Card check was championed as a major issue during the 2008 election, and the initial legislation was co-sponsored by then-Senator Barack Obamaand his nominee for Labor Secretary Hilda Solis. Though yet to return to the forefront on Capitol Hill since the election, it is expected that EFCA will become a large battle between Big Labor and Big Business in the coming months.

Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Spector recently announced his opposition to card check, perhaps under pressure from Big Business; previously Spector was the lone Republican who had voted to even debate the legislation on card check. His vote would have given the Democrats the filibuster-breaking vote on the issue.

One major alternative to the Employee Free Choice Act was proposed in February 2009. Reps. John Kline, Howard McKeon and David Price introduced the Secret Ballot Protection Act, which ensures the workers’ right to a secret ballot union election in the workplace. This act is supported by the American Hospital Association, which says, “The Secret Ballot Protection Act will ensure that workers in an appropriate collective bargaining unit are able to cast their votes on unionization in private, free from undue pressure or influence.”

RELEVANT LINKS