Legal Ease Employee Free Choice Act Would Give New Unions Advantage on First Contracts

摘要

The Employee Free Choice Act of 2007, which we discussed last month, passed the full House of Representatives on March 1, 2007. While proponents in Congress, the AFL-CIO, the UAW and other union organizations are still touting the EFCA as a magic bullet to help workers, the reality is much different. Besides doing away with secret ballot elections and replacing them with a card-check system (see last month's column), the EFCA would also alter the way first contracts are negotiated. Negotiating that first contract with a new union is a delicate, time-consuming process: In fact, about half of all employers and unions have failed to reach a first contract within two years of the union's formation. Under the current law, as long as both parties are acting in good faith, it can take as long as necessary to hammer out an agreement. But that process of patient, good-faith negotiations would no longer be the case under the EFCA. Employers and unions would no longer have the luxury of time to work out a new contract in a pressure-free environment. Under the bill, if a union is certified and it cannot reach an agreement with the employer after only 90 days, either party can call in the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the government agency that assists in the mediation of labor disputes when contract negotiations become stalled. If, with the assistance of a mediator, a contract still hasn't been reached in 30 days, the matter can be sent into compulsory arbitration. The arbitration panel or single arbitrator will have the right to impose a collective bargaining agreement that will be binding on the employer and the union for two years.