As readers of my blog, The Union-Free Employer, are by now well aware, on March 1, 2007, the House of Representatives voted 241-185 to pass the "Employee Free Choice Act" (H.R. 800).  The ironically named E.F.C.A. aims to overhaul our nation's labor laws to promote union organizing and union representation at private businesses.  The bill is political payback by the new Congressional majority to the AFL-CIO and labor unions who are seeking to stem decades-long decline -- from 35 percent of the private sector in the 1960's to just over 7 percent today.  Congress seeks to protect these labor unions at the expense of employer and employee rights alike.

In a nutshell, the E.F.C.A. will:

- eliminate the current guarantee of a free and democratic, government-supervised secret-ballot election for employees to decide whether or not to be represented by a union;

- require an employer to recognize a union as the exclusive representative of all the employees as soon as the union presents cards signed by a majority -- whether or not the employees understood what they were signing;

- do away with the pre-election campaign period, and curtail employer "free speech" rights, preventing employees from obtaining balanced information and viewpoints about union representation before the employees are forced to choose;

- inject the government into the collective-bargaining process, allowing arbitrators to impose a two-year contract on employers if private negotiations do not produce one within 120 days; and

- greatly increase financial penalties against employers only for interfering in the organizing process (e.g., triple back-pay awards for employees, civil penalties of $20,000 per violation, etc.)

Employers must take the passage of the E.F.C.A. very seriously.  This law is intended to bring about the largest wave of union organizing that private industry has seen in decades. 

I have set up this blog at Townhall as a companion to The Union-Free Employer, to track the progress of the Employee Free Choice Act as the Senate prepares to take the issue up.  Please feel free to browse The Union-Free Employer for additional background on the EFCA.