The Employee Free Choice Act

The Employee Free Choice Act, pending legislation that would make it easier for labor unions to organize, is causing quite the political divide.

According to the Post-Dispatch’s Political Fix blog, Karl Rove and the Missouri Chamber of Commerce will be holding a fundraiser to fight the bill July 15 in Clayton.

This Wednesday, a week before the upcoming fundraiser, Sen. Claire McCaskill said she would support the bill, according to Missourinet’s blog.

Two big issues are whether the EFCA would “kill” the secret ballot, a process in which employees vote anonymously for union representation, and a mandatory arbitration process if unions and employers can’t reach an agreement.

Harpar’s magazine also has a lengthy article about the EFCA (generally in favor of it), with a good look at the historic lobbying efforts against labor-strengthening laws.

For the least opinionated source of information about the bill, you can read the 2009 version at OpenCongress.org and find a good summary of its history at Wikipedia.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 9th, 2009 at 8:47 am. Both comments and pings are currently closed.