In “Here Come the Unions,” Claire Berlinski writes in the City Journal of EFCA’s rush to put America into the economic situation from which Margaret Thatcher extracted 1980’s Britain – when she introduced the secret-ballot as the determinative measure in union elections. Berlinski condemns EFCA’s “card check” scheme, and continues to criticize the mandatory interest arbitration provision:

In effect, the federal government will gain the power to dictate the terms of a contract and to set wages, benefits, hours, and work rules. Because negotiations for new contracts almost always take more than 120 days, this provision will ensure a significant expansion of government into the private sector. It’s absurd to imagine that even the most well-meaning government arbitrator would be sufficiently familiar with the day-to-day operations of a company, or the industry in which it operates, to make contract decisions as wisely as the company’s owners and employees would.

The long-term consequences of EFCA passage are perfectly predictable: some companies will go out of business or relocate overseas. Some of the workers whom the legislation is designed to protect will lose their jobs. Nor will it be easy to undo the law once it’s passed, since no one who acquires power gives it up easily. In Britain, during the 1984 miners’ strike, wresting power from the unions nearly led to civil war.

In the Weekly Standard, Tom Continenti similarly warns “Here They Come.” In a piece subtitled “Democrats Gone Wild,” he outlines the numerous “in-your-face liberal” changes he believes a President Obama and significant Democrat congressional majorities will effect. Among them:

…"card-check" legislation, which is, and we are not making this up, too liberal for George McGovern. Card-check would eliminate the secret ballot in union elections. Instead, a workplace would be unionized once a certain number of employees signed cards saying they wanted a union. This is great news if you are a boss at the jointfitters' local who wants to branch out into more "legitimate" enterprises. Under card-check, all that will be required is for you to send some employees--large, well-dressed, tatooed men with clever nicknames like "Walnuts" and "The Chin"--over to the nearby office park to "collect" signatures.

But card-check is bad news for just about everybody else. Unions hurt productivity. They freeze labor markets. They cause unemployment to rise. They politicize the workplace, increase bureaucracy, and weigh down business with regulations and negotiations. And they were a major factor behind the 1970s wage-price spiral, which contributed to stagflation.

Finally, in response to comments made by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney in USA Today last week, Center for Union Facts issued a press release reiterating a challenge to debate EFCA:

Sweeney's column said, "But the Chamber of Commerce and other corporate 'unions' don't want a real debate on (EFCA)." The Center for Union Facts challenged American Rights at Work, an AFL-CIO front group, to a debate last month. Neither organization responded to the challenge.

"If John Sweeney really wants to stop hiding behind his misleading rhetoric and have a public debate on the mislabeled Employee Free Choice Act, we'll happily join," said Rick Berman, Executive Director of the Center for Union Facts.

* * *

"Union leadership has consistently ducked any opportunity to have an honest discussion about the effects of the Employee Free Choice Act. It is time for the American public to benefit from a thorough debate on legislation that will have a far-reaching impact on working Americans and our nation's economy."

The Center for Union Facts has agreed to rent a room at the National Press Club and debate Mr. Sweeney any time he is available before November 4th.