Ever hear of the "Employee Free Choice Act" (EFCA)? I didn’t think so… unless you have been a faithful FOT or HRCapitalist reader, of course.
Whether you are a Recruiter, HR Pro or some other type of Talent professional, you owe it to yourself to see what could be around the corner in 2009. Read my Workforce Column on the EFCA here…
Instead of wondering if the PHR/SPHR is worth your time or why your employees post their résumés in broad daylight, you should be wondering if union shops need recruiters or HR Pros… (hint, they really don’t)…
You can also ask yourself obvious talent questions. Is union representation the best way to maximize the perfomrance of your company? Do high performers get rewarded as they should in union shops?
The EFCA is a stealth piece of legislation
that would cripple the competitiveness of American business, limit the rights of employees and eliminate much of the need for independent-thinking recruiters and HR pros, all in one easy-to-sign law.
The worst thing about the Employee Free Choice Act isn’t its effect on us as HR professionals or recruiters. It’s how stunningly anti-employee the act is. Ability for employees to keep their feelings about unionization private? Gone. Ability for employees to listen and carefully contemplate both sides of an argument regarding representation? Gone.
Ability for an employee to vote in an election via the democratic process we all take for granted? Priceless … but also gone, if the Employee Free Choice Act is passed and signed into law.
Read the whole article at Workforce. Educate your teams about what’s at stake. Hard to believe SHRM, who’s pretty good at governmental affairs, hasn’t organized marches on Capitol Hill over the EFCA.
If you run into someone that thinks the EFCA is a good idea, here’s your question to them: "Shouldn’t employees be able to vote in a confidential manner/private election for or against union representation? What’s wrong with that?"
If they have an answer to that, hold onto your wallet/purse…
Kris, I was thinking about this the other day. The EFCA effect is much like what it would be like to have a presidential election by public card signing. How many people would like to have to publically declare their choice McCain or Obama? What would you do if someone walked up to you and said I would like you to sign this card for Obama. I have to think now “If I say no and refuse the card will I be labeled a racist?” If I was standing there one on one I might. If I was standing in a crowd of people, perhaps many friends, who had all just signed the card for Obama would I have most likely think twice before saying no. Thus we would end up with a public election of one candidate. As it stands now, I could express an opinion one way, and in the private booth actually select who I was most interested in. After having heard a campaign. The EFCA takes that opportunity away. We are brought into the realm of public acclaimation.
I’m not sure what’s on your Reader these days Kris, but plenty of people have been writing about and discussing EFCA including:
HR Observations
Punk Rock HR
Human Race Horses
HR Wench (me)
PA Labor and Employment Blog
HRM Today
Manpower Employment Blawg
BlogHer
Guerrilla HR
Jottings By an Employer’s Lawyer
HR World
Three Star Leadership
CT Employment Law Blog
and more
I’m guessing the thousands of human resource and recruiting professionals that work for unionized businesses would probably disagree with your opinion of their necessity or lack thereof.
Congratulations! This post was selected as one of the five best business blog posts of the week in my Three Star Leadership Midweek Review of the Business Blogs.
http://blog.threestarleadership.com/2008/09/03/9308-a-midweek-look-at-the-business-blogs.aspx
Wally Bock
Michael – Great thoughts, good picture of the pressure employees will face if the EFCA is passed.
Wally – Thanks for the mention..
HR Wench – LOL. I don’t need a stacked Google Reader to know what’s up in this area, because I’ve got the experience in both union and union-free environments. That experience makes me an advocate for employees and upscale HR Pros and recruiters alike when it comes to unions.
I have respect for many of the voices you named. If you look at the comments, HR Observations checked in before you, and 3 Star named it as a quality post in his rundown. So I think we have a lot of common views, or at least agree on the risks of the EFCA.
Additionally, Michael V. (Human Race Horses) checked in with me at the time of the Workforce article and correctly pointed out that if the EFCA is passed, it could be HR’s finest hour, by helping companies remain union-free in an environment that clearly favors organized labor. Great point, and his emphasis is on the challenge to remain union free under the EFCA, not challenges after a union is voted in.
I’m an advocate for HR pros and employees.
For HR Pros and recruiters, I strongly believe you’ll be much more fufilled and make a stronger contribution in a union free environment. In organized environments, you’ll manage most of what you do via the contract. Not a lot of room for creativity. Don’t let people tell you otherwise, because it’s not true.
For employees – I believe in choice… private choice… free of peer pressure and intimidation.
If you disagree with me, that’s OK. Here’s the question that was included in the post that you can respond to – “Shouldn’t employees be able to vote in a confidential manner/private election for or against union representation? What’s wrong with that?”
You can’t say that employees shouldn’t have that confidential ability to vote and call yourself an employee advocate. Period.
All the rest is just static.
Kris – I was pointing out that other people are writing about this topic, a fact that is unfortunately overlooked in the sentence, “Ever hear of the “Employee Free Choice Act” (EFCA)? I didn’t think so… unless you have been a faithful FOT or HR Capitalist reader, of course.” I was not pointing out who disagrees or agrees with you.
If you believe that HR/Recruiting pros will, “be much more fulfilled and make a stronger contribution in a union free environment” that’s great – having worked in both environments, I don’t necessarily disagree with you. However, I do disagree with this statement: “you should be wondering if union shops need recruiters or HR Pros… (hint, they really don’t)…”
If you’re interested in my opinion on secret elections, feel free to read my post & comment section. However, if you don’t feel reading opinions that may be different than yours is valuable, you might want to skip it.
HR Wench -
1. Without question, most HR people have never heard of the EFCA. That’s fact and my point. I read most of the people you listed. Unfortunately, most HR people don’t read blogs.
2. Read my previous comment for how I feel and where I’m coming from. No apologies, you can frame it however you want to frame it.
3. Don’t need to click over to the site for your views, because you have the ability to answer the question here for our readers as requested in my previous comment:
“Shouldn’t employees be able to vote in a confidential manner/private election for or against union representation?”
Yes or No? One word answer, last chance to share with our readers…
I don’t know the facts surrounding how many HR people have heard of the EFCA. Are you referring to a survey?
I’m debating how you feel – only you know how you feel. I’m saying the way you expressed yourself in the original post was a statement I disagree with.
The URL I posted in my last comment has been removed. I’m not sure why, but I’ll repaste it here: http://hrwench.blogspot.com/2008/08/unions-and-your-rights.html.
The post is short, the comments section is lengthy and contains great discourse (IMHO). The reason I cannot, unfortunately, answer your question with a yes or no answer is because the question is based on a commonly misunderstood portion of the NLRA: That employees already have the legal right to a secret ballot election.
HRW -
Last comment. Since I’m a contributor on the site, I get last dibs, or we will drive the readers crazy…
I know you could answer the question if you wanted, but you’re slicing and dicing. I’m asking for your opinion, not a slice of law or a manual. Here’s the question again if you change your mind tonight:
“Shouldn’t employees be able to vote in a confidential manner/private election for or against union representation?” Yes or No?
I’ll leave the link up to your site up there, even though you won’t answer the question.
Later – KD