Obama's first stealth EFCA styled rules implementation

By Warner Todd Huston

One of the aspects of the inaptly named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) is the card check rule that is meant to make creating a union easier for unions and harder to resist for employers. But the EFCA is stalled in Congress as too many people understand just how bad this legislation really is. So, in order to help unions, both union leaders and President Obama have aimed to begin to push union aiding policies through the back door by changing federal rules governing the relationship between labor and business.

This week, Obama tossed unions a favor by changing the rule governing the way unions are ushered into the work place in the air transportation industry. By a 2 to 1 margin the National Mediation Board changed the percentage of "yes" votes that certifies a union from 76 percent of employees to a mere majority. The 75 percent rule has been in place for 75 years.

This is a radical change made by an Obama beholden to unions.

"This rule change... is arguably the most controversial change that the National Mediation Board has ever undertaken, at least in my 30 years of watching the industry," said William "Bill" Swelbar, a research engineer with the International Center for Air Transportation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "It appears quite driven by an administration's policy to promote unionization and collective bargaining."

This move by Obama will help unions radicalize Delta Airlines, a business that is already struggling beneath a sluggish economy.

What we see here is a prime example of the Obama administration going around Congress and implementing its radical, union-friendly polices anyway. Many of the union's most economy killing ideas are sitting fallow in Congress, but not to worry, the union's best buddy Obama is there to circumvent the will of the people.

This move is, of course, part of the wider union agenda. Last week AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka echoed the plan that Big Labor would get its favorite ideas in place by hook or by crook... mostly crook.

On May 6 Trumka assured his followers that they'd attach failed union-friendly legislation to any bill they could find in a stealth move to get their ideas passed regardless.

Anything we can get it attached to, there are multitudes of things we can get it attached to, and we will. We will get it done and it will be a good thing for the country.

Interestingly, it seems that through their representatives in Congress, the country is saying that they don't want Big Labor's bad ideas passed, not that any union thug cares much about democracy.

As the Obama term rolls on look to his appointees to aid Big Labor further by these back door rules changes tat favor labor and harm businesses. And in this bad economy, yet!

(Cross posted at TheUnionLabelBlog.com)

© Warner Todd Huston