Looking at EFCA from Different Angle

The Employee Free Choice Act is still getting its share of attention. While the card check part of the proposal seems dead, lawmakers are still negotiating in an effort to pass some version of EFCA.

One would think that given our economy, organized labor wouldn’t need a law making it easier to organize employees. With the number of workers unemployed, the stunning indifference of employers to mass layoffs, and the abominable compensation still received by CEOs and other executives, it seems employees would be begging unions to organize them. Yet union membership continues to decline.

The reasons for this are complex, but one reason has to be the low regard in which unions are held by many Americans today. The New York Times recently reported that two decades after federal authorities acted to loosen organized crime’s grip on the New York City’s carpenters’ union, the union’s leader and nine other union officials and contractors have been indicted for racketeering, bribery, fraud and perjury.

Although I wouldn’t paint all of organized labor with the carpenters’ union brush, the story in the Times is nothing new. There’s a public perception that organized labor is corrupt, wielding its political influence to partner with corrupt politicians and business leaders, which means that the public’s bad perception of unions also applies to politicians and corporate executives. They’re in bed together. They’re in it for the money — money for themselves.

I don’t know whether the indicted union officials are guilty of any crimes. I don’t know whether they’ve been playing footsie with government officials and CEOs. I do know that’s what a lot of people think. Until organized labor, corporate America, and elected officials are willing to cleanse themselves of the taint with which they’re now afflicted, passing EFCA or any other law isn’t going to make a bit of difference.