Nearly a decade after Democrats failed to enact card-check legislation, the nation’s de facto Labor Party is trying again.
In 2007, before the election of then-candidate Barack Obama to the U.S. Presidency, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the hallucinogenically-named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).
EFCA was a bill that all but eliminated secret-ballot elections on the matter of unionization, as well as imposed government-dictated contracts on workers and employers alike 120 days after unionization.
Although the effort ultimately failed in the U.S. Senate in 2009, House Democrats are, once again, pushing the elimination of secret ballots through so-called “card check,” as well as forced government contracts, through a bill called the Workplace Action for a Growing Economy Act of 2017.
According to a “fact sheet” [in PDF] put out by House Democrats, H.R. 4548 mandates that:
The NLRB will issue abargaining order when an employer’s unlawful conduct prevents a fair representation election and if a majority of workers have designated the union as their representative in writing. For newly-certified unions, the WAGE Act facilitates mediation and arbitration procedures to help parties reach a first contract. [Emphasis added.]
Since their failure to enact EFCA in the late 2000s, Democrats have periodically pushed card-check for unions. In fact, Democrats introduced nearly-identical legislation in 2015.
While the bill only has 36 co-sponsors, and stands no chance for passage right now, it is likely that Democrats will try to push this legislation through Congress should they win a majority of the House and Senate in 2018–and, especially, if they win the White House in 2020.
WAGE Act Fact Sheet on Scribd
