It's important to be able to respond to the ad campaigns put on by the g.o.p. and business organizations that distorts the truth of the Employee Free Choice Act and secret ballots.
The following article from Blue Oregon does a pretty good job. btg
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The Employee Free Choice Act of 2007 (EFCA)
as passed in 2007 by the House of Representatives, but not passed in the Senate, amends the National Labor Relations Act (pdf download here), now incorporated into the U.S. Code as 29 U.S.C. §§ 151-169.
In general, EFCA purports to do three things: to streamline union certification (section 2); to facilitate initial collective bargaining agreements (section 3); and to strengthen enforcement (section 4).
It is section 2 that bears on the issue of secret ballot representation elections. That issue has been the object of a political campaign against Senate candidates who support EFCA, including Jeff Merkley here in Oregon. The campaign says that the candidates' support would deprive workers of the right to a a secret ballot in representation elections, because EFCA provides for certification by a majority of valid signatures, in a proposed bargaining unit, on a public petition for collective bargaining representation ("card-check"). The propaganda for this campaign further alleges that the public nature of such petitions would lead to intimidation by "union thugs" to benefit "union bosses," and by implication, to "forced" union representation imposed by a minority through a false appearance of majority support.
The issue of loss of secret ballot elections has also been a matter of concern among BlueOregon commenters and others who are not anti-union in principle and indeed may be generally pro-union. The purpose of this column is both to refute the claims of the anti-union, anti-Democratic campaign and to address the honest concerns raised by BlueOregon commenters.
http://www.blueoregon.com/2008/08/efca-and-secret.html
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