Employee Free Choice Act opponent admits one million workers disenfranchised by current system

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.examiner.com/x-2071-DC-Special-Interests-Examiner~y2008m12d30-Employee-Free-Choice-Act-opponent-admits-one-million-workers-disenfranchised-by-current-system?cid=exrss-DC-Special-Interests-Examiner

December 30, 1:40 PM
by Ron Moore, DC Special Interests Examiner

Workforce Fairness Institute representative Barbara Comstock committed the political sin of speaking the truth yesterday when debating DC Special Interests Examiner Ron Moore on Fox and Friends .

While making her case for the defeat of the Employee Free Choice Act she quoted Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern who has stated that at least one million workers will join SEIU if the bill becomes law. Comstock, who did not raise an objection to the number, was challenged by Moore that in effect one million or more workers were currently disenfranchised without the protection of the EFCA. She then added insult to honesty by claiming that while the number may be correct it represents workers who would be duped into joining unions.

The EFCA compels employers to negotiate with their workers if a majority of them, in a simple card check procedure affirms that choice. Only after an agreement is reached and approved in a secret ballot election by a majority of the workforce will the employees become union members. It has become increasingly difficult for workers to exercise their right to organize during the last 25 years as the self described “union avoidance” consulting industry has grown counseling employers about strategies to avoid joining their workers at the bargaining table.

Like Alabama Governor George Wallace these consultants have stood at the doorway preventing workers from crossing the threshold to speak and bargain in good faith with their employer. In trhe spirit of Gov. Wallace, today’s union busters are standing on the threshold of history facing in the wrong direction attempting to keep free people disenfranchised.

Barbara Comstock and the corporate funders of the anti-union movement decry the inevitability that previously disenfranchised workers will choose to improve their lives through collective bargaining once the EFCA is signed into law. Like Gov. Wallace the union busters will be compelled by the rule of law to step aside and allow workers and employers to find common ground and work as full partners in their company’s growth. As labor leader Samuel Gompers said: ”The worst crime against working people is a company which fails to operate at a profit” It is that common wisdom that is the common ground found at the bargaining table.

[gratuitous]

1. Workers bargaining collectively?

Ohmigawd, isn't that, like, a sign of the apocalypse?

[Omaha Steve]

2. Kicked

So the night crowd can see this.

OS