• Summary
  
  • EFCA would take away an employee’s and employer’s right to a federally supervised private ballot election when deciding whether or not to join a union. It would be replaced with a biased and inferior process called “card check” which allows a union to organize if a majority of workers simply sign a card. Under this system, the worker’s votes are made public to the employer, the union organizers and co-workers.
  • EFCA would impose compulsory interest arbitration on a first contract by the National Labor Relations Board once a majority of employees sign authorization cards. This process would result in a government official dictating the terms of the contract, including determinations on benefits, work hours, wages, management decisions and more.
  • EFCA would substantially increase the penalties imposed on employers with respect to violations of the National Labor Relations Act, which prohibits discrimination against employees for their union activities.
  • Small businesses would be significantly affected by EFCA. If passed, EFCA would affect over 4 million small businesses employing approximately 38,934,000 workers.
    
• NSBA Position
  
  • NSBA opposes EFCA.
  • Letter of Opposition from NSBA to Congress
• Text of Legislation
  

• Summary:
  
  • Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) on March 5, 2009 introduced the H.R. 1355. The bill includes three provisions, interest arbitration for first contracts, enhances penalties on employers for certain violations or alleged violations, and a provision designed to give unions greater access to employer property.
  • The union access provision has two primary parts:
    
    • The first requires the employer to notify the union of certain employer campaign activities, including “any activities the employer intends to engage in to campaign in opposition to recognition of the representative, including any meetings with individual employees or groups of employees, any announcements to employees, any signs to be displayed at the place of employment, and any literature to be distributed to employees.”
    • The second part requires the employer to provide the union with access for its campaign, including “equal access to the place of employment to campaign in favor of recognition… including the opportunity to hold an equal number of meetings with individual employees or groups of employees, and an opportunity to make announcements, display signs, and distribute literature, under the same terms and conditions that the employer engages in such activities.”
      
• NSBA Position:
  
  • NSBA opposes H.R. 1355
• Text of Legislation
  

• Summary:
  
  • Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Rep. Rob Andrews (D-N.J.) introduced the RESPECT Act in the 110th Congress. The legislation has not been introduced yet in the 111th Congress.
  • Currently, the NLRA excludes supervisors from the definition of employee (29 USC 152 (3)).
    
    • A supervisor is defined by the NLRA as an employee with the authority to “hire, transfer, suspend, lay-off, recall, promote, discharge, assign, reward, or discipline other employees or to responsibly direct them, or to adjust their grievances, or to effectively recommend such action” so long as this authority requires the use of “independent judgment.”
      
  • This legislation would remove from the definition of “supervisor” the duties of assigning and responsibly directing other employees.
  • The legislation also specifies that supervisors must “hire, transfer, suspend, lay-off, recall, promote, discharge, reward, or discipline other employees” for a MAJORITY of their work time.
  • This proposes a significant change in the NLRA resulting in a disproportionate impact on small businesses where almost no supervisor spends their time conducting any activity a majority of the time. The RESPECT Act would make virtually all employees non-supervisors for NLRA purposes.
  • Heritage Foundation Summary -- http://www.heritage.org/research/labor/wm1667.cfm
    
• NSBA Position:
  
  • NSBA opposes the RESPECT Act.
  • Small businesses need supervisors without conflicting interest or responsibilities in order to operate effectively. The RESPECT Act undermines decades of labor law that requires employees who perform management responsibilities regularly and for a substantial portion of their time to be considered supervisors, but also recognizes that supervisors may also spend a significant amount of their time performing non-management duties.
• Text of Legislation (from the 110th Congress)
  

• Summary:
  
  • The Secret Ballot Protection Act was introduced by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.) on February 25, 2009.
  • The legislation would prohibit a union from being recognized based on a card check, provide that a union may only be recognized by an employer following certification by the NLRB if it has won majority support in a secret ballot election conducted by the NLRB, and guarantee the right of every worker to a secret ballot vote on decisions to unionize.
    
• NSBA Position:
  
  • NSBA supports secret ballot elections.
• Text of Legislation