Reduces coercion

To the Editor:

RE: EFCA bad for everyone (Our View, June 2).

There are two methods for organizing recognized by the National Labor Relations Board, Congress and the Supreme Court: 

1. Majority signup: Workers sign valid forms indicating their preference for a union. EFCA (Employee Free Choice Act) changes existing law so that an employer must recognize its employees’ union when a majority of its workers authorizes union representation by majority signup.

2. National Labor Relations Board Elections: Under EFCA workers are still free to organize using “secret ballot” elections, however, majority signup is needed as an option because of employer abuses. Many employers resist workers’ efforts to form unions; some threaten to shut down the work site; many others use bribes or favoritism to coerce workers into opposing a union and some illegally fire pro-union workers.  EFCA amends the law regarding majority signup to put the choice of how to form a union in workers’ hands, not their bosses’.  Majority signup has existed since 1935. 

EFCA reduces coercion substantially. Workers in secret ballot elections are twice as likely as those in majority signup campaigns to report coercion to oppose a union.

Kenneth R. Miller

Crystal Lake