EFCA and 1st Contract Negotiations

“44 percent of newly-certified unions fail to get a first contract.”

But this is crazy! Isn’t the point of forming a union to be able to negotiate the conditions of your job with your employer?

Yes. But unfortunately, some employers are so desperate to hold on to the unfair division of power that they’ll continue to deny workers their basic rights of collective action, even after workers have voted for the union! As we said before, employers like this are often willing to break the law to hold onto their complete control because the price they have to pay is so small.

How does this play out? Basically:

1. Workers fight (often long and hard) to demand a union election.
2. An election takes place, and workers vote to establish a union!
3. Workers sit down at the bargaining table to work out a fair compromise with their employer.
4. The employer stalls the bargaining process.
5. If the employer manages to stall the process for an entire year without a contract, the workers have to vote all over again for or against the union. At this stage, some workers may have become intimidated by the company’s strong opposition to the bargaining procedure, and they may give up on the dream of a union in their workplace.

Ideally, once a majority of workers have spoken loud and clear that they want a union by voting for it, their employer should be willing to come to a reasonable agreement with them. But in the case that they are unwilling to have a real conversation, Employee Free Choice Act would help the process along by allowing either side to request mediation by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS). This mediation service would help the negotiation process along, and prevent stalling by either party.

A Worker Tells His Story

"My name is Jose Guardado and I worked at the Nebraska Beef meatpacking plant in Omaha, Nebraska for 8 years. I worked on the kill floor where we faced more than 2,500 steers each day.

"I came to this country to follow the American dream. I thought that in the most powerful country in the world, workers were free to express themselves. I thought the laws protected workers who wanted to form a union. I was wrong. Instead, I found that when employers break every law, abuse workers and silence our voices, no one does anything to stop them.

"My co-workers and I wanted a union at work to fight back against the dangerous working conditions, the lack of respect, and abusive treatment. We all signed cards showing our support for the UFCW.

"The law wasn't enough to stop Nebraska Beef from campaigning against us. The company terrified workers from standing up for their rights. They threatened to fire union supporters, threatened to call immigration and deport the Latinos and threatened to close the plant. They promised to slow the line down and treat everyone better. Nebraska Beef even brought in a bunch of strange workers on the day of the election just to get them to vote against the union.

"Workers were scared. No one wanted to lose their job. The company won the vote by a small number. The line was sped back up and no one was given what was promised to them.

"We need this law to protect workers' rights. We need this law to help workers who want to organize."

What's Wrong with this Message?

Commercials like this one misinform people about the Employee Free Choice Act. It’s time to set the record straight!

But first, check it out and see if you can catch the faulty reasoning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afjp4Cx-3W0

These commercials lead most people to think that unions want to replace the secret ballot election with a not secret ballot election. However, unions and workers agree that “democracy is something that should never be sacrificed.”

Bear with me.

Currently, the standard way to form a union involves two major steps.

1. Majority card sign-up: Before any election takes place, a majority of workers must sign cards saying that they want an election.
2. Elections: Workers vote (yes, with a secret ballot) on whether they want a union.

Sounds fair, right? The problem though, is that during the time between Steps 1 and 2, the employers wage their anti-union war. They might force workers to watch movies that lie about the union, tell people how to vote in the election, or even fire pro-union workers. This time period can last for months or even years, so you can imagine that when the election rolls around, many of the people who signed the cards in the first place might have changed their minds. And really, if the money you need to survive is being given to you by a person (your boss) who’s telling you how to vote, is this actually democracy?

So the solution proposed by Employee Free Choice Act is to allow workers to vote for the union using the same process that is already used in Step #1. If workers want a union, they sign a card. If they don’t want a union, they don’t sign a card. Democracy is still in place here, because a majority of workers need to sign cards for the union to win. This process is the same as the one we have always used; it just gets rid of the opportunity for employers to intimidate their workers.

But if this is the same process that is already in place, why are the anti-union people presenting it as something new and scary? Because without the employer intimidation process it would easier for workers to join unions, and harder for employers to hold on to all the power! Remember, Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott admitted, "We like driving the car and we're not going to give the steering wheel to anybody but us."

What Exactly is EFCA?

There’s a lot of talk about the Employee Free Choice Act these days. If you’ve heard about it in the news, you’ve probably also heard the words “secret ballot,” “majority sign-up,” or “card check.” These words are an important part of what this legislation hopes to do for workers. But there are other exciting parts of the Act as well. Here we lay out the basic idea of the Act so you can decide for yourself what you think about it.

1) The first major component of EFCA allows unions to form when the majority of workers sign cards in support of the union.

Right now unions generally start with this card signing process, but then they have an election. The main problem with this election is that it often occurs months or even years after the initial card sign-up. During this time the employers do all they can to frighten workers away from voting for the union, threatening to fire workers, or lying to them about what it would actually be like to be a union member.

2) EFCA makes it easier to resolve contract disputes between the workers and their employer.

Currently, if a company doesn’t like the demands that workers are making during contract negotiations, they might just refuse to come to any agreement. In this case, even if workers have voted overwhelmingly for a union, they might have to wait for years until they actually get any contract at all. With EFCA, there would be a fair way to resolve contract disputes.

3) EFCA increases penalties against employers who take illegal union-busting measures against workers.

It may surprise you to learn that many employers commit illegal actions or “Unfair Labor Practices” on a regular basis. Unfortunately, the current penalties for these acts are so minor, that they are basically just a slap on the wrist. For example, employers will continue to take the risk of having to pay a small fee if it means they can invent reasons to keep their employees from unionizing.

Slaughterhouse Workers Win Right to Organize

After a 3-year struggle, Brooklyn slaughterhouse workers have won the right to organize. The U.S. Court of Appeals ruled workers have the right to join the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.

AgriProcessors argued its workers had no right to vote or belong to a union because of undetermined immigration status even though the National Labor Relations Board previously ruled that every employee -- regardless of immigration status -- has a vote in collective bargaining.

One of the nation's largest kosher meat producers, AgriProcessors refused to bargain after a majority of its distribution center employees voted to unionize in September 2005.

Read more at ufcw.org.