Maine: Efca

An offhand comment on a conference call regarding the Employee Frre Choice Act (ERCA, H.R. 1409), that very small businesses have been exempted from jurisdiction from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) since 1959, got me to digging. And what I initially found was of interest:

That while there is nothing in the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) that sets a floor as to when a business falls under the jurisdiction of the NLRB, it has been the NLRB's practice since the 1950's to exempt very small businesses, and this was codified in 1959. In general, the when a business has a cash volume of $500,000 for retail, and $50,000 for everything else, AND does commerce that crosses state lines, the NLRB hcase jurisdiction.

h/t Laura @ dKos

It seems that all those GOP political operatives that lost their jobs with the incoming Obama administration have found work, at least for the next couple of months, lobbying against the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which is to be introduced this week. Poliico has more:

"There are groups springing up almost every week," said Rhonda Betz of Navigators Global, a consulting firm that started the first anti-EFCA group out of the gate, Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, in 2006. "Some of it is a reflection of them identifying this as a fundraising opportunity, and some of it is a reflection of real stuff going on.

A couple of conversations I had over the weekend regarding the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA, H.R. 800 from the 100th Congress) has led me to support a revision to the bill, one that not only addresses directly the most common complaint about the bill, but one that boxes these opponents into a corner.

The revision? To mandate that when card check is used to establish that a majority of workers in a shop support the creation of a union, that an election is held within seven days of such a determination.

Currently, when a union is certified using card check, management can demand an election (and usually does) but then does everything in its power to delay such a vote.

The legislation hasn't been submitted in Congress yet, but the fight over the Employee Free Choice Act in Maine is ramping up quickly.

Yesterday, Congressman Mike Michaud, labor leaders and top Democrats in the legislature gathered at the Capitol to highlight a new study from the Center for American Progress that predicts a 5% increase in union membership would lead to an infusion of $77 million into Maine's economy.

WLBZ has footage from that event as well as a press conference held by Maine business lobby leaders the day before:

Passage of this legislation will likely require the votes of at least one of a small group of moderate Republican senators, which includes Maine's Snowe and Collins.