KS partner Richard Haygood on EFCA's mandatory arbitration provisions in the Raleigh News & Observer:

Under such a system, neither labor nor management would have an incentive to compromise during bargaining, as they would know that wages and terms and conditions of employment would later be imposed upon them by government arbitrators. Indeed, if the union knew that it ultimately had the potential to exact more from an employer via arbitration, without having to assume the risk and responsibility of a strike, it would have little incentive to compromise during negotiations.

Moreover, this provision fails to recognize that collective bargaining does not take place in a vacuum. Employers come to the negotiating table with specific resources for labor costs. If an arbitrator awarded a significant wage increase to all employees, an employer would be faced with raising the price of its goods to offset those imposed cost increases, or reducing labor costs by laying off employees. In an extreme example, businesses would simply shut down or go overseas.

Read the rest of the opinion piece here.