Once again we feel it’s important to step aside from writing about background checks and cover this important HR legislative issue. A few weeks back we wrote about the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), here is an update!
This week, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) – a pivotal vote on labor issues and potentially the 60th cloture vote on the Employee Free Choice Act of 2009 (EFCA, H.R. 1409 / S. 560) in the Senate – announced that he plans to oppose EFCA and oppose cloture on the bill.
While this is important news for HR professionals, employees and employers, the effort to pass EFCA and other amendments to the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) will remain alive for the foreseeable future. Sen. Specter’s announcement means that EFCA proponents are still only two votes shy in the current Senate of having the 60 votes necessary to defeat a filibuster and pass the bill. There are more than enough House members to pass EFCA, and President Obama continues to support its enactment. Even after announcing his opposition to EFCA, Sen. Specter acknowledged that EFCA, or the “card check” bill, will not go away.
For these reasons, the SHRM Governmental Affairs department has prepared an EFCA Toolkit to help members more fully participate in the advocacy process on the EFCA and other amendments to the NLRA.
The EFCA Toolkit is one component of a larger more comprehensive advocacy strategy on the Employee Free Choice Act. The Toolkit is designed to provide you with the necessary materials to perform your own grassroots advocacy campaign.
Included in the Toolkit are the following:
- Employee Representation Fact Sheet
- EFCA Power Point Presentation
- How to Lobby Power Point Presentation
- Text versions of both the House (H.R. 1409) and Senate (S. 560) versions of EFCA
- Employee Representation Email Alert
- SHRM’s Employee Representation Policy Statement
- Sample Letter to the Editor for your local newspaper(s)
- Myths vs. Facts – This document addresses the common claims of EFCA supporters
We hope you will visit the EFCA Toolkit website because your involvement is critical to SHRM’s advocacy success.
