EFCA Round-Up - August 11, 2008
Another installment of our semi-regular peek around the blogosphere for commentary on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)....
The National Association of Manufacturers' (NAM) blog, Shopfloor.org, takes to task a recent Bangor Daily News editorial by the head of Maine's AFL-CIO in "More Deflection -- That's the Nice Term -- On Card Check." NAM's astute blogger in chief, Carter Wood, observes of union politicking against EFCA opponents:
There’s another response, too: Name calling. The AFL-CIO is fond of “sleaze propagandist” as a term of opprobrium; the gentlest attack is “anti-worker.”
If abuse is the typical response to criticism, it seems like individual employees might have good reason to fear a negative reaction if a union organizer presented a signature card and said, “Sign this. You want to join the union, don’t you? DON’T YOU?”In today's Washington Times, political correspondent Donald Lambro reviews the presidential candidates' positions (Obama, for; McCain against) on the legislation. He doesn't seem to buy the sophistry of the Obama campaign asserting that EFCA is merely about "process":
But Mr. Obama, a lawyer, flatly says the bill "will allow workers to form a union through majority sign-up and card checks" - bypassing the ballot process. Union leaders have said they prefer this to an election in which employers and unions compete for worker votes.
A national survey of 1,000 registered voters conducted by the Chamber in June found 83 percent were either strongly or somewhat opposed to a system where union organizers "would know which workers voted to join a union and which did not."The ContraCosta Times ran an editorial today pleading with legislators to "Kill [this] Unfair Labor Bill."
Finally, Paul Levy's Running a Hospital blog, Betsy Newmark's Betsy's Page, and DarwinCatholic blog all expound upon former Senator George McGovern's recent WSJ editorial criticizing the Democratic majority's zeal to pass EFCA.
EFCA Updates