Employee Free Choice Act (a.k.a. Card Check)

This is organized labor's top priority for Congress, and is something that the Obama administration plans to pass in 2009.

Probably the 2 most prominent items in the proposed legislation are card check and forced binding arbitration.

Card Check: This is a union organizing system. If a majority of employees sign a public card in favor of union representation, then the union becomes their representative. There is no secret ballot process.

Forced Binding Arbitration: A new union and management would be forced into binding arbitration if they cannot come to an initial agreement within 120 days.

Some of the major arguments made for/against the legislation are:

For

• Claims that management may use illegal firings and harrassment to intimidate workers who are trying to form unions. The bill would strengthen penalties against employers who break the law.
  

• Claims that even after a union is formed, delaying tactics are used to prevent creating the initial collective bargaining agreement in a timely fashion.
  

Against

• Card Check effectively ends employee rights to private-ballot elections. Union organizers and/or management may intimidate or pressure employees on how to vote. An employee's decision to join a union should be made in private, protected from any coercion by unions, employers or co-workers.
  

• Binding arbitration is nothing less than having two or three people who know very little about an employer's business actually tell that employer how to run it.

Here are some links to sites with further information/opinions:

Heritage Foundation (Against)

American Rights at Work (For)

National Restaurant Association (Against)