Is Today the Day that EFCA Launches?

After several false starts, current buzz suggests that the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) will be introduced into Congress later today. My ears perked up on Sunday when the topic arose on This Week with George Stephanopoulos – one of the first mentions on a Sunday morning talk news show in quite some time.

Then yesterday, there was a blast of buzz following a report on Politico. Both blogs and Twitter lit up in response, with supporters on both sides trumpeting their point of view. A union rally by the SEIU followed, then the president of the union, Andy Stern, appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC to discuss it.

Hmm, looks like a coordinated PR effort here to coincide with the introduction of the bill.

Warren Buffet, the investor, weighed in against EFCA on CNBC, (referring to it by its nickname, “card check”). It didn’t take long for that clip to circlulate the Net. Twitter spiked in traffic – the first real traction about EFCA in weeks.

One tweet dovetailed with my own views about why employers should care:

“Card Check would create a system whereby the employer would have little if any opportunity to campaign against unionizaition.”

It appears that the legislative battle is about to begin. That means it’s time for companies to get up to speed and into a state of readiness. For most, the recommended course of action is talking to your employees about EFCA and educating them about the value of their signature before they are approached to sign cards by union organizers. Because, once those cards are signed…