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Union Organizing Laws Discussed

Examining practices in Brazil, Britain and the United States, three labor law scholars Wednesday discussed "The Employee Free Choice Act in Comparative Perspective: How Workers Organize on Three Continents."

The proposed Employee Free Choice Act, which would change federal rules governing union organization in the United States, is expected to be introduced this year in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Supporters of the Employee Free Choice Act say the act would make it more difficult for employers to unfairly block union organizing at work sites. Opponents say the act would put too much power in the hands of unions.

Currently, employers are allowed to demand a secret ballot vote by employees seeking to organize a union even if a majority of workers join the union and request bargaining.

Under the Employee Free Choice Act, workers could choose to have their unions certified when a majority of workers at a site signed cards authorizing it.  That process is known as "card check." Workers could also opt for an election under current proceedings.

Employers' tactics such as "captive audience meetings," in which managers require employees to attend anti-union speeches and videos, and pressurized one-on-one meetings between supervisors and workers, all scripted by specialized anti-union consultants, motivate unions and their allies to support the Employee Free Choice Act, said panel member Fred Feinstein, visiting professor and senior fellow at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy.

If the act becomes law, he cautioned, anti-union forces will adapt to the new law and continue fighting unionization. Advocates of the proposed law hope that its passage will result in more union organizing success, said Feinstein, former general council of the National Labor Relations Board. But, it remains to be seen if the act would indeed bring higher unionization rates, he concluded.

Keith Ewing, professor of law at Kings College London School of Law, said "card check had not been a panacea for our problems."

Political concessions to employers undermined Britain's organizing laws, he said.

Private-sector unionization has dropped in the United Kingdom since the new laws went into place, said Ewing, a board member of the International Centre for Trade Union Rights.

Ana Virginia Gomes said Brazilian labor organizing laws prohibit government interference in union organizing.

As a result, thousands of groups have formed, said Gomes, labor law professor at the Universidad Católica de Santos Law School in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Labor courts, not workers, decide which groups will represent workers, said Gomes, who was an ILR visiting scholar in 2007.

Wednesday's discussion, in Ives Hall, was sponsored by the Cornell Law School Labor Law Clinic and ILR International Programs.

A video of the panel discussion will be available on the ILR International Programs website at http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/international/.

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