Do we frighten you?
Another day, another study [PDF] showing that union intimidation is non-existent under majority sign-up, also known as card check. The study is a collaboration between researchers at the University of Illinois, Rutgers (New Jersey), Cornell (New York) and the University of Oregon, who compared their respective states' union organizing laws. All four states rely on majority sign-up, which would become the national standard if the Employee Free Choice Act is passed in its current form:
In brief, from 2003-2009 in the states studied, a total of 34,148 public sector workers employed in state, county, municipal and educational institutions voluntarily joined a union. Most importantly, contrary to business claims, in 1,073 cases of union certification and in at least 1,359 majority-authorization campaigns, there was not a single confirmed incident of union misconduct.I'm sure that folks on the employer side will characterize this study as an example pro-union bias. But will they attack the study itself -- do they have any reason to believe that the facts are wrong here? When the last study came out on the topic, focusing specifically on Illinois state practices and finding no evidence of intimidation, there was a lot of criticism of the study's author and very little of the research. In any case, it doesn't seem like majority sign-up will become a national law, since the current EFCA compromises under discussion in the senate generally include an accelerated election and a mail-in ballot instead of card check, which was consistently attacked by conservatives. These studies, at least, makes clear that the attacks on card check have very little to do with concerns about workers being intimidated and everything to do with concerns about workers being able to exercise their right to organize. As long as I've got you here, thinking about unions, here's a chart that shows how long it takes unions who secure bargaining rights to get their first contract, from EPI:
That's why first-contract arbitration is an important part of the Employee Free Choice Act, too: it ensures that employers bargain in good faith instead of using contract negotiations as a second chance to stop the union. That way, both labor and management can secure some kind of fair agreement and return to the important business of, well, work.-- Tim Fernholz
