Washington, D.C. (September 2, 2009) – The Workforce Fairness Institute (WFI) today announced that local business and community leaders across the country will be conducting events in an effort to speak out against the anti-democratic and job-killing Employee ‘Forced’ Choice Act (EFCA). These local leaders will communicate that EFCA violates the right of workers to have a voice in contract negotiations, will harm small businesses, and a vote for cloture is a vote in favor of this job-killing legislation, whether it’s the bill as introduced or any so-called “compromise.” Events will take place in Arkansas, Colorado, Maine, Louisiana, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
The Employee ‘Forced’ Choice Act is legislation that eliminates the secret ballot by imposing a public card check process for workplace union elections and empowers government bureaucrats to force arbitration on workers and small businesses without their consent. The result, according to a recent economic study, would be that for every three percentage points gained in union membership through card check, the U.S. would see a one percentage point increase in unemployment, and job creation would fall by around 1.5 million jobs.
Union bosses stand to gain the most should EFCA become law, a recent WFI study shows Big Labor would gain upwards of $35 billion over 10 years with at least $1.7 billion for political activity to reward supporters and punish opponents.
“Today, local and community leaders in states across the country are uniting and calling on their U.S. Senators to stand firm in support of workers and employers by opposing the Employee ‘Forced’ Choice Act. This legislation would result in massive job loss and increased unemployment, while lining the pockets of union bosses, and the American people simply will not stand for it,” said Katie Packer, executive director of the Workforce Fairness Institute. “The time has come for our public officials to stand up and be heard: do they support the small businesses and workers in their states or will they choose to side with labor bosses in Washington, D.C.?”
