Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Here comes EFCA

An EFCA compromise has been worked out and my sources told me that the Senate was just waiting for Franken to be seated. The compromise does away with the card check provision that was the focus of the EFCA opposition's fire. In its place there will be a much shorter time frame to hold the workplace election, somewhere in the neighborhood of 5-7 days, as opposed to the months or years the process drags out now.

In addition the binding arbitration clause if no first contract can be reached within a year will remain. This, I think, is more important than card check. It will force employers to bargain in good faith instead of simply running out the 1 year clock and moving to de-certify the union.

We'll have to wait and see how quickly it actually moves now, with healthcare and climate change already out there the legislative calendar is pretty crowded.

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