U.S. Chamber Rebuts Misleading Ads on EFCA's Arbitration Provisions
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce yesterday sent a letter to all U.S. Senators rebutting misleading union advertising accusing the Chamber of hypocrisy in its support of dispute arbitration, while opposing the mandatory interest arbitration scheme contemplated by EFCA. In the letter, the Chamber's Bruce Josten wrote:
Dispute arbitration is used to resolve factual disputes (such as whether or not an employee was properly discharged or disciplined) -- after a contract has been entered into by the parties. There is long-standing precedent for this type of arbitration and surveys demonstrate its utility and support by the public. This is entirely different from what EFCA calls "arbitration." What EFCA entails in its interest arbitration language is a broad grant of authority to an outside person or entity to actually write and determine every provision of the underlying contract governing an entire workplace -- and force the parties into that contract. The comparisons are entirely spurious.The unions remain troubled by the facts and are trying to deliberately confuse the issues. However, no amount of obfuscation will hide the true impact of the Employee Free Choice Act. Government-mandated binding interest arbitration of any type in the private sector is unworkable and unacceptable. It is also completely unrelated to the business community's support for dispute arbitration.
