How would the Employee Free Choice Act work? 

Ultimately, it gives workers more power and levels the playing field. 

• First, it gives WORKERS--not their employers--the power to decide how to vote for union representation: either by a majority signing cards or by secret-ballot election. Right now, the EMPLOYER holds the power to decide for workers how they will vote.
• Second, it ensures workers will get their first contract because a neutral arbitrator will settle a contract when a company and a newly certified union cannot agree on a contract after three months. If the employer and workers cannot agree on a contract after three months neutral third party to settle a contract when a company and a newly certified union cannot agree on a contract after three months.
• Third, Employee Free Choice holds employers accountable by strengthening penalties for companies that illegally coerce or intimidate workers to prevent them from forming a union.

I’m already a union member. Why should I care about non-union workers? 

The best chance for workers in a union to secure strong contracts is to have more union members in their industry. With more members uniting for a voice on the job, we can build more power at the bargaining table to negotiate better contracts.

Do we really need this? 

Absolutely. This is one of the most promising pieces of legislation aimed at improving the lives of working Americans that we have seen in recent years. As middle-class jobs dwindle and the American Dream slips out of reach for many workers, this legislation could not come at a more crucial time.

What’s wrong with the current law?
The National Labor Relations Act states: “Employees shall have to the right to self organization to form, join, or assist labor organizations....” It was designed to protect employee choice on whether to form unions, but it has been turned upside down.

The current system is not like any democratic election held anywhere else in our society. Employers have turned the NLRB election process into management-controlled election process—the employer has all the power, controls the information workers can receive and routinely poisons the process by intimidating, harassing, coercing and even firing people who try to organize unions. On top of that, the law’s penalties are so insignificant that many companies treat them as just another cost of doing business. By the time employees vote in an NLRB election, if they can get to that point, a free and fair choice isn’t an option. Even in the voting location, workers do not have a free choice after being browbeaten by supervisors.

What is exactly is majority sign-up, and how does it work? 
When a majority of employees votes to form a union by signing authorization cards, and those authorization cards are validated by the federal government, the employer will be legally required to recognize and bargain with the workers’ union.

Majority sign-up is not a new approach. For years, some responsible employers such as Cingular Wireless have taken a position of allowing employees to choose, by majority decision, whether to have a union. Those companies have found that majority sign-up is an effective way to allow workers the freedom to make their own decision—and it results in less hostility and polarization in the workplace
than the failed NLRB process.

Does Employee Free Choice take away so-called secret ballot elections? 
No. If one-third of workers want to have an NLRB election at their workplace, they can still ask the federal government to hold an election. Or, they can sign union cards saying they want union representation. Employee Free Choice simply gives WORKERS the choice on how to vote for union representation. Currently, employers make that decision and usually force workers to vote by a secret-ballot election even if a majority signed cards asking for union recognition.

“Elections” may sound like the most democratic approach, but the NLRB process is nothing like any democratic elections in our society—presidential elections, for example—because one side has all the power. The employer controls the voters’ paychecks and livelihood, has unlimited access to speak against the union in the workplace while restricting pro-union speech and has the freedom to intimidate and coerce the voters.

Once a majority of workers indicate they want a union by signing cards, the company should not be able to drag the process out for months as they can under a management-controlled election process. The will of the majority should be recognized.

Does Employee Free Choice silence employers or require that they remain neutral about the union?
No. Employers are still free to express their opinion about the union as long as they do not threaten or intimidate workers.

Will employees be pressured into signing union authorization cards?
No. In fact, academic studies show that workers who organize under majority sign-up feel less pressure from co-workers to support the union than workers who organize under the NLRB election process. Workers who vote by majority sign-up also report far less pressure or coercion from management to
oppose the union than workers who go through NLRB elections.

In addition, it is illegal for anyone to coerce employees to sign a union authorization card. Any person who breaks the law will be subject to penalties under the Employee Free Choice Act.

Who supports Employee Free Choice?
Employee Free Choice has the support of hundreds of members of Congress of both parties, academics, historians and civil and human rights organizations such as the NAACP and Human Rights Watch, most major faith denominations and and nearly percent of the American public.

Who opposes Employee Free Choice?
Corporate front groups are waging a major campaign to stop the Employee Free Choice Act. They do not want workers to have the freedom to choose for themselves whether to bargain through unions for better wages, benefits and working conditions. The anti-union network includes discredited groups such as the Center for Union Facts, led by lobbyist Richard Berman, who is infamous for fighting for the tobacco industry, fighting for the fast food industry, fighting against drunk-driving laws and consumer and health protections, and fighting against raising the minimum wage; and the National Right to Work Committee and Foundation, the country’s oldest organization dedicated exclusively to destroying workers' rights.