Q and A:
The Employee Free Choice Act

Workers across the country are struggling more than ever to earn a decent living. Now joining with co-workers to form a union is the surest route to job security and improved standards of living.

Unfortunately, many employers take advantage of their power in the workplace to intimidate union supporters and obstruct union organization – even though such actions are illegal.

The good news, however, is that there is growing momentum for new legislation to enhance our workplace rights. The Employee Free Choice Act will level the playing field between workers and employers. After all, the CEOs of America’s top companies have the power to negotiate contracts for their wages and benefits without the threat of being fired. Shouldn’t all workers have that right?

Here are some key questions and answers about this important bill:

What does the Employee Free Choice Act do?

It does three things to level the playing field for employees and employers:
• Strengthens penalties against corporations that break the law in an effort to prevent them from forming a union;
• Guarantees workers a contract when they form a union. It brings in an arbitrator to settle a contract when a company and the workers of a newly certified union cannot agree on a contract after three months;
• Lets workers choose by majority sign up, meaning that if a majority of the employees sign union authorization cards, validated by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), a company must recognize the union.

What’s wrong with the current law?

The National Labor Relations Act states: “Employees shall have to the right to self organization to form, join, or assist labor organizations....” It was designed to protect employee choice on whether to form unions, but it has been turned upside down.

The current system is not like any democratic election held anywhere else in our society. Employers have turned the NLRB election process into management-controlled election process — the employer has all the power, controls the information workers can receive and routinely poisons the process by intimidating, harassing, coercing and even firing people who try to organize unions. On top of that, the law’s penalties are so insignificant that many companies treat them as just another cost of doing business. By the time employees vote in an NLRB election, if they can get to that point, a free and fair choice isn’t an option.

What is majority signup, and how does it work?

When a majority of employees votes to form a union by signing authorization cards, and those authorization cards are validated by the federal government, the employer will be legally required to recognize and bargain with the workers’ union.

Majority sign-up is not a new approach. It has always been recognized as a legal option. Some companies have found that majority sign-up is an effective way to allow workers the freedom to make their own decision — and it results in less hostility and polarization in the workplace than the failed NLRB process.

Does the Employee Free Choice Act take away so-called secret ballot elections?

No. If one-third of workers want to have an NLRB election at their workplace, they can still ask the federal government to hold an election. The Employee Free Choice Act simply gives them another option — majority sign-up.

“Elections” may sound like the most democratic approach, but the NLRB process is nothing like any democratic elections in our society — presidential elections, for example — because one side has all the power. The employer controls the voters’ paychecks and livelihood, has unlimited access to speak against the union in the workplace while restricting pro-union speech and has the freedom to intimidate and coerce the voters.

Once a majority of workers indicate they want a union by signing cards, the company should not be able to drag the process out for months as they can under a management-controlled election process. The will of the majority should be recognized.

Does the Employee Free Choice Act silence employers or require that they remain neutral about the union?

No. Employers are still free to express their opinion about the union as long as they do not threaten or intimidate workers.

Will employees be pressured into signing union authorization cards?

No. In fact, academic studies show that workers who organize under majority sign-up feel less pressure from co-workers to support the union than workers who organize under the NLRB election process. Workers who vote by majority sign-up also report far less pressure or coercion from management to oppose the union than workers who go through NLRB elections.

In addition, it is illegal for anyone to coerce employees to sign a union authorization card. Any person who breaks the law will be subject to penalties under the Employee Free Choice Act.

Isn’t this law really about unions wanting to increase their membership?

This law is about restoring to working people the freedom to improve their lives through discussion. After all, as Americans we don’t have to vote on whether or not we should have self-determination. That’s a given as U.S. citizens and should also be a given as U.S. workers.

Who supports the Employee Free Choice Act?

The Employee Free Choice Act has the support of hundreds of members of Congress of both parties, academics, historians and civil and human rights organizations such as the NAACP and Human Rights Watch, most major faith denominations and 69 percent of the American public.

Who opposes the Employee Free Choice Act?

Corporate front groups are waging a major campaign to stop the Employee Free Choice Act. They do not want workers to have the freedom to choose for themselves whether to bargain through unions for better wages, benefits and working conditions. The anti-union network includes discredited groups such as the Center for Union Facts, led by lobbyist Richard Berman, who is infamous for fighting against drunk driving laws and consumer and health protections, and the National Right to Work Committee and Foundation, the country’s oldest organization dedicated exclusively to destroying unions.