Elevator Speech - The Issue in a Nutshell

Executive leaders of manufacturing companies will have opportunities to communicate their concerns about the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) in conversations with other leaders in the communities where they live and work. The key points that follow serve as a 30-second “elevator speech” to quickly communicate the big picture problem.

1. Card check is the most sweeping change in federal labor law in the last 60 years.
2. Card check denies employees their fundamental right to a secret ballot election – and in some instances may deny many workers any opportunity at all to have their voice heard on the matter of union representation.
3. Card check eliminates the education and discussion period in which both the union and the employer traditionally make their cases to employees – i.e., a union could be authorized before an employer even knows an organizing effort is underway.
4. Card check allows government-appointed third parties to impose a binding contract for wages, benefits and work rules if the company and union do not reach agreement in 120 days.
5. Card check will impose conditions that undermine constructive, give-and-take relationships between employers and employees – and ultimately will tip the scales heavily in favor of labor.