EFCA reverses incentives in post-card-check contract negotiations

Interesting article in Sunday’s issue of The Dallas Morning News. The gist: Passage of the Employee Free Choice Act will increase union organizing efforts in the Lone Star State. (More thoughts on EFCA swirl in my podcast and my Work Matters print column.) Recall that EFCA eliminates the secret ballot, which was a yes-or-no vote on whether employees want union representation. The bill replaces that vote with employer recognition of a union when a majority of employees sign cards saying they want it. Then, if the employer and the union can't agree on a contract within 120 days of union certification, a panel of arbitrators will impose the terms of a two-year contract. Trust me, these are major changes.
•     Thought No. 1: The Dems have 58 votes for passage of EFCA in the Senate. That’s solid. Recall that they need 60 to break a filibuster. Alaska is still out (although the Dem is now ahead), and Georgia's runoff is in a few weeks. And a Republican, Arlen Specter, supports the bill. Upshot? No filibuster. The Senate will pass EFCA.
•    Thought No. 2: Yes, EFCA will pass the Senate and breeze through the House, but what will be its content? I think President-Elect Barack Obama is too smart to get tripped up in his first 100 days to get tripped up on elimination of the secret ballot. The Morning News piece states that the president-elect has taken all references to the bill off his Web site. Hmmm. A guess: The bill passes but requires a secret-ballot election with seven days of a union asking for it. The result will be more union wins.
•    Thought No. 3: The unions will put up a fight on the secret ballot but won't really care. Why? Now, on 58 percent of union wins on secret ballots result in a contract. The rest of the time, the employer uses the negotiating process to wear the union out. The gem of EFCA for unions is that they always, always, always get a contract. Sweet.
•    Thought No.4: The Morning News piece quotes a union organizer who notes that young health-care and hospitality workers who are Latina aged 18 to 35 will be a cohort favoring unions. To borrow a military phrase, they are a target-rich environment. And I agree. A survey by the Peter Hart Group from 2006 found that the highest approval ratings (71 percent) for unions were among those 18-34 with incomes of less than $40,000 a year, regardless of race or ethnicity. And young workers will not let their employers treat them like their parents' employers treated the older generation. They think Corporate America betrayed their parents, and they will not blindly give their loyalty to it. Employers must find ways to bond with this cohort. If not, they will look for a better option. As the classic country and western song, "Lookin' for Love in All the Wrong Places," goes, "I turned to a stranger, just like a friend."
•    Thought No. 5: Take a look at this month's Harvard Business Review, "Supervisor Work/Life Training Gets Results," by Ellen Ernst Kossek and Leslie B. Hammer. The big idea? Employees appreciate supervisors who understand that sometimes they need to leave work at 3 p.m. instead of 4:30 to go to Sally's baseball game or Joe's music recital. If they can't leave early, they would like the supervisor at least to explain why. Let me tell you: Unions get a foothold not because the worker down the street makes a dollar more but because they feel dissed by the boss or believe the boss does not take time to understand the work/life balance. If an employee feels a boss is supportive -- even if the boss can't give them what they want -- they are less likely to organize a union.
•    Thought No. 6: Employers must start to think different from a legal perspective if EFCA passes. Now it is the union that wants to get a contract ASAP and the employer who does not. With the EFCA, the poles are reversed. The employer only has 120 days to get its deal before arbitrators impose one. So, post-EFCA, employers will want to be the ones speeding up the bargaining process and, if the union drags it out, to file unfair labor practices charges for refusing to bargain in good faith.
    I quizzed some acquaintances in their late twenties on whether they thought people in their age cohort at least would be open to the notion of belonging to a union. Both are professionals. Their answer: Sure, people of our generation are open to things our parents would shut down ASAP

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