Majority of US Voters Oppose Ideas in EFCA

-By Warner Todd Huston

The folks at the Workforce Fairness Institute conducted an interesting and enlightening post election survey that they are now ready to release and it shows that a significant majority of American voters do not support the Democrat’s and the Union’s Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). The anti-democratic policy of card check was particularly disliked by those surveyed.

Workforce Fairness Institute

Public Opinion Strategies is pleased to present the key findings from a national post-election survey of 800 voters who said they voted on Election Day (November 4, 2008) or voted early. The telephone survey was conducted November 17-19, 2008, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.46%.

THE BOTTOM LINE

When presented with neutral language that describes the two main components of the Employee Free Choice Act, solid majorities of those who voted in this year’s elections oppose the proposed legislation. A couple of important themes arise in this survey data.

First, the more familiar voters are with the Employee Free Choice Act, the more opposed they are to it. Secondly, voters do not see this as a partisan or ideologically driven issue. Both a majority of Republican and Democratic voters oppose the Employee Free Choice Act, as do conservatives and liberals alike. Additionally, voters in the political middle – the battleground states where McCain and Obama won with less than 55% of the vote – oppose this legislation by very significant margins. And, in a clear warning sign to those newly elected (and re-elected) Democrat U.S. Senators, a solid majority of voters in your states oppose both components of the Employee Free Choice Act.

This data shows that Americans have a strong attachment to the secret ballot process. Among the few voters who support unionizing their employer, the overwhelming majority say they would want to decide the issue with a secret ballot process and not a card check system. Why? One reason that can’t be taken lightly is the very real concern voters have that a card check process would lead to increased worker intimidation by union organizers.

SURVEY KEY FINDINGS

1. Significant majorities of actual voters oppose the Employee Free Choice Act. Because of the length of the legislation, we tested each of the two main components of the Employee Free Choice Act separately. What we found was that 59% of actual voters oppose changing the way unions are formed in this country and 53% oppose changing the bargaining process as proposed in this legislation. In fact, very few voters who went to the polls this year support the Employee Free Choice Act – only 34% favor changing the way unions are formed and just 39% favor changing the bargaining process.

“The (FIRST/NEXT) part of this new legislation would…

Change the way unions are formed. Instead of holding a federally supervised secret ballot election to decide whether to unionize, union organizers would be allowed to ask employees to sign a card saying they support forming a union. Once a majority of employees sign these cards, the union would officially represent that company’s entire workforce.”

34% Favor  
59% Oppose  
7% Don’t Know/Not Sure

“Change the bargaining process. This legislation would give the newly formed union and the employer 90 days to reach a contract agreement or else the matter will be handed over to federal arbitrators. It would be those arbitrators who would determine the wages, benefits and other terms of the contract that employees would be required to work under for two years.”

39% Favor  
54% Oppose  
8% Don’t Know/Not Sure

Check out the rest of this important effort at Workforce Fairness Institute.

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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, Human Events Magazine, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston

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