Sen. Blanche Lincoln Against Employee Free Choice Act

Bill Smith, ARRA News: After months of joining others in calling for a clear position from Sen. Blanche Lincoln on "Card Check" and asking her to stand with her Arkansas constituents who overwhelmingly oppose the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), she has responded. The EFCA also called "Card Check" would have taken away union employees right to a secret ballot and would have forced binding Federal arbitration on businesses. Steve Forbes said today on a conference call that EFCA should really be called the Employee "Forced" Choice Act. Sen Mitch McConnell (R-KY) last month, "To put it simply, the Employee ‘No Choice’ Act is undemocratic. To approve it would be to subvert the right to bargain freely over working terms and conditions. It would also strip members of a newly recognized union of their right to accept or reject a contract."

Yesterday, Lincoln speaking before a Little Rock group said that she will oppose the Employee Free Choice Act. Lincoln released a statement which said: " While I may not have been clear about my position in the past, I am stating today that I cannot support Employee Free Choice Act in its current form and I can’t support efforts to bring it to Senate consideration in its current form." Interesting what one will do when a primary is pending in the future. However, she did hedge her response by stating "I will consider alternatives that have the support of both business and labor but my pledge today is to focus my full attention on the priorities I have mentioned that affect every working family in Arkansas."

According to the Arkansas Business, Ricky Belk, secretary-treasurer of the Arkansas AFL-CIO, the The Employee Free Choice Act would allow power to shift from corporations to workers, a shift that is needed considering the current economy. His comment makes it clear that unions are seeking to take control of corporations owned by investors. Wow, it is the unions actions at the "Big 3" automotive manufacturers in Detroit which have aided in that industries failures. The AFL-CIO's agenda is fairly clear. Theft of the control of decision making; replacing the rights of owners and investors of businesses to not be the determiners of the fate of their businesses. It is also clear that the unions were not interested in the workers rights as much as the power the unions would accumulate. If they were for workers rights, they would not be pressuring for the elimination of the rights of employees (workers) to have a secret ballot with respect to organizing a union.

Unions under socialism have been used as an arm of abuse by the government. Based on large union political donations, principally to democrats, it has been evident for some time that the union's management seeks to gain more control of private property. It is also interesting that Sen. Lincoln, while failing previously to respond on this issue and waffling now by leaving the door open to this egregious bill in any form, took time to inform the union of her decision early Monday before she made her position public.

Politico speculates that Lincoln's announcement could be a “death blow” for card check after Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) also said he would oppose this bill. It’s likely too early to declare such a thing, given that this is the top priority for deep-pocketed unions. Still, it is a positive sign that senators on both sides of the aisle seem to agree that it’s a bad idea to eliminate the secret ballot in labor negotiations.

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Tags: Arkansas, Blanche Lincoln, business, Card Check, corporations, EFCA, Employee Free Choice Act, labor unions, Senator, unions, voting rights To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!