EFCA Introduced in Congress
March 10th, 2009 | By Paul ChernerThe Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) was introduced today in the House and the Senate with much fanfare and rhetoric.
In our January 19, 2009 post, we set out the key provisions of this legislation from the prior effort to pass it in Congress. This bill will essentially allow unions to organize workers on the basis of the workers signing union authorization cards and will, in effect, obviate the usual process of the NLRB holding a secret ballot election on the issue of union representation. Additionally, the original bill set a short timetable for bargaining the first union contract and provided for binding arbitration when the parties had not reached an agreement within the proscribed time limits.
This new legislation contains essentially the same provisions of the prior EFCA bill. There will be a vigorous campaign within Congress by unions and employers over this legislation. It is too early to predict what will be contained in the final version of this important piece of legislation.
In the coming months you will be reading about this legislative battle in the papers and hearing about it from the broadcast media, since it is a “hot button” topic for many interest groups.
It is currently expected that the process of trying to enact this legislation may take until sometime this summer before it goes to a final vote. However, Senate leadership has announced that they intend to try to have it voted on after the Easter recess. We will keep you advised of further significant developments.
