Louisville Labor Blues, Despite EFCA

An article in the New York Times focuses on an interesting battle between labor and management that’s gone on at a Louisville hospital for decades. On more than one occasion, pro-union nurses have come close to a successful organizing campaign, only to lose a close secret-ballot election. In light of the Obama administration’s support of the Employee Free Choice Act and Democrat gains in both houses of Congress, the pro-union forces thought that victory was near.

The Louisville hospital story is a familiar one. Management points to deceitful union tactics to get nurses to sign cards supporting the union, telling the nurses the cards only request information. Thus, if EFCA passes and all you need is signed cards by a majority of nurses without a secret-ballot election, unions can organize nurses and other employees with abandon.

The union points to management’s illegal campaign practices: firing and demoting nurses and threatening to close the hospital if the union prevailed. In fact, the National Labor Relations Board found that hospital management conducted a campaign so illegal that it made a “free choice by the employees slight to nonexistent.”

The Employee Free Choice Act to the rescue? Portraying the elimination of the secret-ballot election as un-American has gained traction in recent months. Also, there aren’t the 60 votes needed in the Senate to stop a filibuster of EFCA. Compromise is being talked about openly but seems unlikely.

What was to be organized labor’s crown jewel has lost its luster. Labor hasn’t waved the white flag yet — indeed, it’s still publicly expressing confidence that EFCA will pass soon. But it seems increasingly apparent that labor’s new day in the sun will have to wait.

(For another article about the labor wars now occurring in New York’s charter schools, click here.)