Posted by
Always To The Right on Thursday, January 29, 2009 10:37:59 PM
By now, many people know that the so-called Employee Free Choice Act
— also known as "card check" — would strip workers of the protection of
a secret-ballot vote in union organizing elections.
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What most people don't realize is that the card check bill would
also give the federal government the power to set wages, benefits and
work rules for employers in a wide variety of industries throughout the
economy.
Under this bill, once a union is formed, employers would be under a
strict deadline to reach an agreement on all of the union's demands. If
no agreement is reached after just 120 days, the matter would go to a
federal arbitration panel, which would then write and hand down the
union contract. That contract would bind both parties for two years
with the same force as if it had been agreed to through full and fair
negotiations.
For the first time, a federal authority would set private-sector wages,
specific work rules and other workplace restrictions, including forcing
employees into underfunded and unsustainable pension plans.
The practical result of this radical change would be to incentivize
unions to take extreme positions in collective bargaining and then
stonewall, expecting the government arbitration panel to at least
"split the difference" on their list of demands. Once the government
has stepped in, the employer would lose all control of the workplace.
This would also create an opportunity for unions to force provisions
into contracts that they could never get at the bargaining table, such
as productivity-killing work rules, union approval of restructuring and
restrictions on the use of new technologies at the workplace.
It's not labor law reform to permit government arbitrators who don't
know the business or the employees or the market to write labor
contracts — it's a prescription for disaster.