A labor dispute involving Tyler Perry’s production company has attracted considerable attention for a number of reasons, including Mr. Perry’s remarkable body of work, his amazing personal story, and his widespread appeal. There is also the matter of his involvement with Senator Barak Obama’s presidential campaign.  Some of the headlines and story lines suggest that labor may be flexing its muscle inside the Big Tent.  In an article entitled “ Tyler Perry's Alleged Role As Union Buster Becoming Big Obama Embarrassment? ,” L.A. Weekly columnist Nikki Finke notes:

Perry also has been stumping for Obama, most recently in the battleground state of Florida in front of faith-based groups because of his religious zeal. The entertainment mogul and native Southerner spoke to several hundred people at the New Mount Olive Baptist Church in Fort Lauderdale Friday to encourage them to register and vote for Obama.

(See also: Tyler Perry, You Can't Be an Obama Supporter AND a Union Buster and Could Tyler Perry Cause Barack Obama To Lose The Presidency? ).

The Writer’s Guild of America filed an unfair labor practice charge on October 2, 2008 alleging that that four writers were “ fired when they tried to get a union contract with Tyler Perry’s production company, House of Payne, LLC. ” The Guild also alleges the production company has failed to bargain in good faith.

Mr. Perry’s attorney released a statement asserting that four writers “were terminated because of the quality of their work.” The attorney went on to describe the state of the company’s five-month negotiations with the Writer’s Guild:

“We continue to work toward a resolution of their contract, and after months of negotiations we have reached agreement with the Guild on every major issue but one, including benefits, minimum weekly salary rates, script fees, minimum script commitments, guaranteed employment periods, cable residuals … video residuals, pay TV residuals, and foreign residuals. The one point which has not yet been agreed upon concerns free TV residuals.

“Instead of continuing to negotiate the contract of their members in good faith, the WGA’s Hollywood-based leadership decided to go to the media with a racially inflammatory press release attacking a man who employs over 300 Atlantans, the majority of whom are African-American.”

This dispute will play out under the current labor law system, but it
provides a good opportunity to look at how different things would be if EFCA
becomes law.

Under the current system, the National Labor Relations Board will
investigate the charge filed on behalf of the writers and, if the firings were
unlawfully motivated, will have the authority to order the writers to be
reinstated with full backpay. The NLRB will also have the discretion to ask a
federal judge to temporarily reinstate the workers while the issue is under
agency review.

Under EFCA, if the NLRB’s preliminary investigation found that there was
“reasonable cause to believe such charge is true,” the agency would be required
to seek injunctive relief reinstating the writers. Then, if the agency were to
ultimately determine that the discharges were unlawfully motivated, the company
could be required to pay the writers three times their lost wages and could be
assessed civil penalties of up to $20,000 per firing.

The additional penalties, while substantial, are still arguably rather small
compared to punitive damages awards in other types of cases.  Mr. Perry’s additional liability under EFCA
would likely be $100,000 to $200,000.  Once
can imagine, however, the awkwardness of having a court order a television show
producer to immediately reinstate writers while the NLRB investigates whether
there was a lawful reason to discharge them. 
The show’s creative chemistry would likely suffer.

But the more disturbing possibility relates to the current bargaining
impasse between Mr. Perry and the Guild. 
The current law will not require Mr. Perry’s company to make any
concessions on terms that it believes are not in the company’s best interests,
but will allow the Writer’s Guild to resort to strikes and other public
pressure to try to accomplish its goals.  The issue will be resolved by
free market principles.

Because this is a first contract, and because negotiations have apparently
already been underway for five months, EFCA would permit an arbitrator
appointed by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service to resolve the
bargaining impasse. Such resolution could force the company to pay the
residuals it has thus far been unwilling to concede during arm’s length
negotiations.  In other words, a
government-appointed arbitrator would be empowered to take capital from Mr.
Perry and distribute it to others.

To our knowledge, Mr. Perry has not commented on the Employee Free Choice Act, and we have no idea how the current labor dispute will be resolved. So we’ll just direct you to this video of Madea, Mr. Perry’s most beloved character, who Mr. Perry suggested should have been selected as Senator Obama’s running mate: