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EFCA Consequences for Arkansas Employees

The consequences of EFCA in Arkansas – a right-to-work state

The consequences of EFCA on employees in the state of Arkansas

The so-called Employee Free Choice Act will eliminate the right to secret ballot elections supervised by the NLRB in making the very important decision of whether employees want a union to represent them or not. Instead, EFCA will substitute a card-check process in place of the traditional and democratic secret ballot election. Once a union has collected, by whatever means, signed authorization cards from a majority of workers in a bargaining unit, the union is automatically recognized as the exclusive bargaining representative for all employees, including those that never signed a card and never had a chance to vote on the issue. Individual workers will lose their right to negotiate their own terms and conditions of employment with their employer, without ever having a chance to vote on the issue!

EFCA will not change Right-to-Work laws in Arkansas that give workers the right to refuse to join a union or to pay union dues. However, those employees who are deprived of the right to vote and who do not wish to join the union nonetheless lose their right to negotiate individually with their employer. Instead they are bound by the provisions of the union contract and the union is their exclusive representative for purposes of dealing with the employer on their terms and conditions of employment. All without the employee ever having a chance to vote on the issue!

The consequences of EFCA on unions in the state of Arkansas

This card-check process empowers unions in several ways. Unions know that the card-check process is a far superior process for unions than allowing employees to decide on union representation in the unintimidating atmosphere of a secret ballot election. First, EFCA forces workers to make decisions about unionization in front of union organizers, and subjects workers to intimidation by those organizers. Secondly, card-check campaigns frequently result in employees signing cards when they have only heard the promises and half-truths of union organizers, without the benefit of hearing management’s perspective. In addition, because unions get to define the scope of the bargaining unit, they can play games with the numbers – if they don’t get a majority of the entire workforce, perhaps they can get a majority of the employee in maintenance, or in the warehouse, or just the office and clerical workers, etc. Clearly, EFCA is designed to make it easier for unions to organize an employer’s work force by eliminating the right of employees to cast an educated vote in the free and unintimidating privacy of a secret ballot election.

The consequences of EFCA on employers in the state of Arkansas

Under the so-called Employee Free Choice Act, if an employer and union do not agree on a contract in 120 days, an arbitrator (who knows nothing about your business) will set all contract terms, including among other things: