I'm a recruiter for a healthcare company and, as such, have been a member of the Society of Human Resources Management for some time. I generally get emails from them when new legislation is about to come to Congress that would impact the Human Resources function in an organization.
I got an email from them today urging me to oppose EFCA. Now, I don't have any plans to do this because I happen to SUPPORT the EFCA, but what was more surprising (infuriating?) to me was their rationale for the position.
HR in an organization has generally been oriented around employee relations. It's often times the first (and sometimes only) face an employee has to deal with the corporate entity that employs them. It administers benefits, cuts the paychecks, and generally ensures that employee needs are met, because the entire department exists solely on the recognition that people (i.e. employees) are an asset that must be nurtured and protected just like any other physical or tangible commodity. The benefits of happy employees (or the costs of unhappy ones) are difficult to measure, but if employees or their happiness didn't have any bearing on business, there'd be no need for HR to exist except only as an administrative layer of bureaucracy in an organization.
Why, then, are they so unequivocally picking sides in this battle? From the email I received from SHRM:
Federal Legislative Action Alert!
YOUR ASSISTANCE IS NEEDED! The time is now to share the HR perspective on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)!
In virtually all cases, this legislation would take away the privacy and secret ballot voting rights of American employees in choosing whether they want to be represented by a union in the workplace.
If enacted, the Employee Free Choice Act would:
--Eliminate employees’ right to vote in a Federal government-administered, private ballot election
--Require binding arbitration within 120 days after a union is certified through a signed card collection process if the employer and the union are unable to reach an agreement
--Restrict an employer’s ability to communicate to employees about the workplace issues involved in the union organizing drive
--Create new fines against employers for an expanded list of unfair labor practices
SHRM has been actively engaged in opposing the EFCA in Congress for years. Please use HR Voice to send a letter to your House representative and both of your senators and urge them to OPPOSE the Employee Free Choice Act.
Background:
The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) establishes two primary ways that employees are able to form or join a union:
- Private ballot election administered by the National Labor Relations Board (the Board). An election is initiated after a union has collected and submitted to the Board at least thirty percent of workers’ signed authorization cards. The Board certifies the union as the bargaining representative if a majority of employees voted in favor of the union, or,
- Collection of signed authorization cards (known as the "card check" process, which is similar to signing a petition in favor of a union) from a majority of employees in a bargaining unit. A union submits the cards to the Board, and the Board subsequently recognizes that union as the sole bargaining agent on behalf of the relevant employees.
Employers usually select the first process and initiate an election for their employees because it is a superior format that best ensures employee privacy. The "card check" process, conversely, forces employees to make their union views known in public. Thus, card checks are most likely to expose employees to inappropriate coercion.
Legislation:
The Employee Free Choice Act, sponsored by Representative George Miller (D-CA) and Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), would amend the NLRA to allow unions to use the "card check" process each time they try to organize workers. The proposed measure would effectively eliminate the private ballot election during union organizing campaigns by requiring the Board to certify any union that secures a simple majority of signatures through the card check process.
Furthermore, once a union is certified through card checks, the EFCA would lead to binding arbitration on a two-year contract after only 120 days. The bill would direct the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service to refer management-labor disputes on first contracts to an arbitration board after 90 days of collective bargaining and 30 days of mediation.
SHRM’s Position:
SHRM believes in the fundamental right of every employee to make his or her own choice on union representation. For this reason, SHRM aggressively opposes the Employee Free Choice Act because it would take away the right of employees to a federally supervised, private ballot in union elections.
Furthermore, SHRM opposes these specific aspects of the bill:
--Circumvention of Private Ballot Election—The bill would force employees to make their important decision on whether or not to support a union in public—potentially in front of their co-workers, union organizers and others who have a stake in the organizing process. SHRM strongly believes the secret ballot election process is the best way to ascertain a worker’s true view on union representation. By eliminating the private ballot, SHRM believes the bill would actually take away an employee’s private and "free choice," expose employees to coercion and promote a threatening work environment for employees.
--Binding Arbitration on First Contracts—The bill would end bargaining negotiations after only 120 days—90 days of negotiations and 30 days of mediation—and force a two-year contract on both the employer and employees. SHRM believes that mandatory binding arbitration provides motivation for either a union or employer to engage in bad faith bargaining until the end of the negotiating period. Finally, the EFCA would lead to an arbitrator to impose unwanted employment conditions on both employees and management.
--One-sided penalties—The bill would establish additional penalties, including back pay plus liquidated damages, on employers that discriminate against employees during organizing drives. The bill creates no new penalties for labor organizations that engage in coercive conduct during organizing campaigns.
They want us to oppose the EFCA because of the impact it would have on employers? Give me a break. Employers have been underpaying and coercing their employees for years. Little surprise that the "internal PR" function for a company to its employees would oppose this measure, but their rationales are thinly-veiled and unsubstantiated.
OF COURSE it's going to have a negative impact on companies. That's exactly why it needs to be enacted -- Companies have been influencing legislation for far too long to the benefit of very few. But what of the BENEFITS of EFCA? What about what it does FOR Employees (and, tangentially, the employer long-term)?