OpEd Contributor
Commentary: One step forward, two back on Card Check
By: Kirk Pickerel
OpEd Contributor
March 15, 2009
It is ironic that as Congress continues to search for solutions to the current economic crisis, they are beginning serious consideration of a bill that could wipe out as many as five million jobs within 12 months of its passage.
At a time when America needs real solutions from Washington, the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which is also known more popularly as Card Check, represents the wrong answer.
Card Check, which was formally introduced last week, is an attempt by organized labor and its allies in Congress to turn back the decline in unionization in the U.S. that has occurred steadily since the 1970s.
If signed into law, this bill would strip workers of their right to a secret-ballot election when deciding whether to unionize, and it would also allow the federal government to dictate how employers run their businesses if they cannot reach an agreement with a new union within 120 days.
Workers would be subject to coercion and intimidation from union organizers in a desperate attempt to increase their ranks and many small businesses will be forced to turn over vital business decisions to federal arbitrators.
Facing historic lows in union membership and underfunded pension programs, organized labor has pulled out all the stops make the Employee Free Choice Act the law of the land, despite the bill’s negative impact on the economy.
A recently released study from noted economist Dr. Anne Layne-Farrar found the Employee Free Choice Act will result in “a one percentage point increase in the unemployment rate for every three percentage point increase in workers organized.”
In other words, if the Employee Free Choice Act results in a 10 percent increase in unionization, the unemployment rate would increase by more than three percent. If the Employee Free Choice Act had passed in 2007, the unemployment rate could be a shocking 11.6 percent instead of the 8.1 percent released last week – which is already the highest since 1983.
The impact of the Employee Free Choice Act would be especially disastrous in the construction industry, where the unemployment rate is already over 18 percent.
It is shocking that Congress would seriously consider a bill that will significantly increase unemployment and cripple small business just weeks after passing a $787 billion package to stimulate the economy. If the stimulus package is one-step forward for the economy, then Congress is taking two steps back with the Employee Free Choice Act. This is not the kind of change Americans need right now.
Kirk Pickerel is president and CEO of Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc., a national association representing 25,000 merit shop construction and construction related firms in 79 chapters across the United States.
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