As the nation grappled with health care, regardless of what you think of the outcome, there was one thing that was certain to affect American working people: Having the Employee Free Choice Act put on the back burner of importance. That said, if you think that big business has put down its guns on EFCA, you'd be dead wrong.
Today there are articles that are circulating around the fact that Target and other major retailers are retooling their efforts to keep their workplaces union free.
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NOTE: THIS IS BEING CROSS-POSTED FROM UNION REVIEW
According to Business Week, Michaels Stores Inc. told investors "our businesses could be impacted" by the measure. Enrollment in Jackson Lewis LLP's "How to Stay Union-Free" seminars tripled. Imagine that there is a whole industry out there that is bustling with business aimed at doing nothing else than keep you union-free.
As unions around the country carry the message of the Employee Free Choice Act to their members as best they could, unions are busy and can't do it alone. There is one organization that I know of, American Rights at Work, working on this messaging every day of the week, 365 days-a-year. Clearly we need all the help we can get.
More from Business Week: "As we approach the 2010 elections, the unions are really going to want their pound of flesh," said Randy Johnson, who handles labor issues for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation's largest business lobbying group. "Even if we defeat the card-check bill, it's entirely possible that other changes to the National Labor Relations Act will come up, and some of those will likely make it easier to organize the workplace."
Workers deserve a voice at work, a collective bargaining agreement, and the right to form a union if they choose to do so. The wheels of commerce are threatened by that idea because they believe it will affect their bottom lines -- for them it is about profit, for us it is about dignity. Nothing new there, just an observation.