Study predicts millions of lost jobs under Card Check
By: Kevin Mooney
Editorial Staff Writer
March 6, 2009
America’s unemployment rate could top 10 percent under the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), if it boosts union membership as much as some supporters have predicted, according to a new economic study.
Every three percentage point gain in union membership would be accompanied by a one percentage point increase in the unemployment rate the following year, said Dr. Anne Layne-Farrar , who conducted the study.
She is an economist with LECG, a non-partisan Chicago-based economic consulting group.
Proponents of EFCA say union membership would grow by 1.5 million members every year over the next 10 to 15 years under EFCA.
But EFCA opponents point to the new study to back their argument that EFCA will hurt the economy.
“Job losses attributable to the passage of the employee free choice act in that respect would be equal to the entire population of the city of Boston,” said Phil Miscamarra, a legal counsel with the Alliance to Save Main Street Jobs.
A 1.5 million member increase would “lead to the loss of 600,000 jobs by the end of the following year,” he said.
Layne-Farrar’s study entitled: “An Empirical Assessment of the Employee Free Choice Act: The Economic Implications” concludes that EFCA’s economic impact would be felt within a year of becoming law.
Unemployment could rise anywhere from one-and-a-half to three percentage points by January 2010 if EFCA passes this year, Layne-Farrar said.
The Employee Free Choice Act (or Card Check) passed in the House last March but fell short of the 60 votes required for cloture in the Senate. Under current law, workers are guaranteed a federally supervised secret ballot election when formation of a new union is disputed.
Section Two of the proposed Card Check bill says when the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) “finds that a majority of the employees in a unit appropriate for bargaining has signed valid authorizations designating the individual or labor organization specified in the petition as their bargaining representative … the Board shall not direct an election but shall certify the individual or labor organization as the representative described in subsection A.”
House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller, D-CA, is the main sponsor of the measure in the House. Main Senate sponsor is Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-MA.
Kevin Mooney is an editorial staff writer for The Washington Examiner.
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