The Employee Free Choice Act

The Employee Free Choice Act is important federal legislation that has been proposed which will have a tremendous adverse effect on all businesses and employers in the United States. This proposed legislation is strongly opposed by the Greater Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce and should be strongly opposed by all business owners. The Act greatly diminishes workers’ privacy rights within the workplace to resist overtures by labor union advocates.

The intention of the legislation is clearly designed to make it easier for unions to organize the workforce. In the past decade, the percentage of union membership in the private sector has been in steady decline. This has resulted in a major push by unions to have this legislation passed. Unions, pro-union supporters, and pro-union lobbyists have spent millions of dollars in lobbying and advertising efforts to push this Bill through Congress.

Under the proposed legislation, certification of unions in a workplace can be based solely upon signed authorization cards that are collected by the union. A union can be recognized and certified if 50% plus one employee within a bargaining unit signs a card authorizing and designating a certain union as the exclusive collecting bargaining agent for the employees. Under the Act, unions have the right to determine whether they can simply utilize a card check or request a secret ballot election to determine whether all employees want to be represented by a particular union. If the union obtains signatures of over 50% of employees, the union is automatically certified. If the union obtains 30% or more signatures, the union can request a secret ballot election which will utilize the same election procedures currently in place under existing law. In almost all instances, employers may end up with a unionized workforce without even realizing or knowing that a union organizational effort has taken place.

The House (H.R.1409) and Senate (S. 560) both introduced their bills on March 10, 2009. The House bill has 222 co-sponsors-- including Indiana Representatives Visclosky, Donnelly, and Carson-- and the Senate has 40. It is important to note is that the number of co-sponsors is down significantly this year.

We need you to take action to help stop this legislation before it goes to the President for his signature. President Obama supports this legislation and has said that he will sign EFCA if it makes it to his desk – with your help we can stop it. It is critical that all Members of Congress – pro or against - hear from you today. Even if you have already written a letter, please take the time to call your Senators and Representative to remind them of your opposition. If you know your elected representative is opposed to the legislation, be sure to call and thank them. We encourage you to share this email with your friends and business associates as education on EFCA and ask them to also contact their Members of Congress.

We need to keep up our momentum on this issue, so please call, email or fax your Members of the House and Senate today to make them aware of how EFCA will affect your business. You can use http://mail.fwchamber.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.voteforbusiness.com online communication system to email your opposition by using this link. There is also an online EFCA Tool Kit that has sample letters to Congress, newsletter articles, and other information to assist you with your outreach.

Please let us know if you have any questions or need additional information.

Positions of the Indiana Delegation on Card Check Legislation

Senator Richard Lugar (R) opposed (202) 224-4814
Senator Evan Bayh (D) undecided (202) 224-5623
Rep. Pete Visclosky (D-01) co-sponsor (202) 225-2461
Rep. Joe Donnelly (D-02) co-sponsor (202) 225-3915
Rep. Mark Souder (R-03) opposed (202) 225-4436
Rep. Steve Buyer (R-04) opposed (202) 225-5037
Rep. Dan Burton (R-05) opposed (202) 225-2276
Rep. Mike Pence (R-06) opposed (202) 225-3021
Rep. Andre Carson (D-07) co-sponsor (202) 225-4011
Rep. Brad Ellsworth (D-08) undecided (202) 225-4636
Rep. Baron Hill (D-09) undecided (202) 225-5315