STATE OF THE UNION: EFCA a fearful fix for some

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.bloomingtonalternative.com/node/9845

by Tom Szymanski
December 14, 2008


More media attention than usual has been devoted to labor law and the potential for some badly needed changes since Barack Obama's election. During his campaign, Obama publicly supported the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), an amendment to the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

But some in the business community have gone on the offensive to condemn changes in labor law as if the world was going to end if the EFCA passed in Congress.

The NLRA was passed in 1935 and gave workers the right to self-organization and protection if they desired to organize collectively to address workplace issues with their employers. It was a response to the effects of industrial strife and workplace disruptions of interstate commerce.

When employees believed they were being treated as commodities instead of as a people, strikes ensued, costing the economy, workers and employers much needed financial resources during the Great Depression.

In response, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt initiated a compromise between workers and business that mandated labor disputes and union recognition be settled through legal channels instead of open warfare on the streets. Unknown by many, the real intent of the Act was to keep interstate commerce flowing without disruption. Protecting workers and formally giving them legal recognition were secondary objectives.

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Over the decades, as new members of Congress were voted into office, the policies of the NLRA were amended and changed, effectively weakening worker rights. Numerous studies have documented that justice in the workplace no longer exists. For example, workers who lose their jobs because they initiated organizing drives may not receive final verdicts from the NLRA for two to five years, after the appeals are exhausted.

Not only does this have a negative financial impact on workers, it has a chilling effect on other workers who are intimidated by the fact that they may lose their jobs for exercising their legal rights. Now is this fair? Is this justice? Workers witness the fact that labor law does little to nothing to protect them.

FULL story at link.