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Maine: Nlra

June 1, 2009 - 07:21 am
NEWS FEED: Turn Maine Blue

Another reporter gets it wrong on the EFCA

By Gerald Weinand

The Hill is reporting that Sen. Dianne Feinstein will meet with opponents of the EFCA. In it is yet another example that the media still does not understand what the Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 1409) does, nor even the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which the EFCA amends:
EFCA is often called "card-check" because one of its provisions would allow workers to form unions not by secret ballot elections called for by management but by a majority of employees signing petition cards stating their intention to organize.

Feinstein's compromise would replace that provision with a requirement that union elections be decided by mail-in ballots with the design that workers, not employers, would have a choice on when to form a union while their privacy would be protected from labor organizers.

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There have been 75 comments posted in response to this story.

March 18, 2009 - 03:01 pm
NEWS FEED: Turn Maine Blue

EFCA: Updating the exemption for very small businesses

By Gerald Weinand

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.

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There have been 58 comments posted in response to this story.

February 20, 2009 - 08:32 am
NEWS FEED: Turn Maine Blue

PPH editorial repeats the industry lie about the EFCA

By Gerald Weinand

This morning's Portland Press Herald has this editorial that repeats the well established lie used by opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA):
Taking away the right of workers to vote in secret on whether to have a union is fundamentally unfair. In advocating for this approach, unions have ceded the high ground and lost an opportunity to build support for its concerns about employer intimidation and resistance to first contracts.

The EFCA (H.R. 800 from the 110th Congress) amends some portions of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), but not the section which guarantees workers a right to demand a secret ballot vote (Sec.

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There have been 29 comments posted in response to this story.

February 11, 2009 - 05:37 pm
NEWS FEED: Turn Maine Blue

Labor nominee Hilda Solis committee vote this evening

By Gerald Weinand

The Hill is reporting that the Senate committee tasked with vetting President Obama's nominee to head the Department of Labor, Hilda Solis, will vote later today. Solis' nomination has not moved forward due to a hold placed on it by one GOP senator:
President Barack Obama's nominee for labor secretary will finally receive a committee vote late Wednesday afternoon.

After weeks of delay, the nomination of Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) will be voted on by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. The executive session is tentatively scheduled for 5 p.m., according to a committee notice sent to aides.

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Solis was the first of Obama's nominees to testify before the Senate in early January.

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There have been 29 comments posted in response to this story.