The Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce is part of a broad-based business coalition that strongly opposes the fiercely anti-business Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) due to three primary concerns. 

Currently, employees have the right to engage in a secret ballot process to determine if a union will form within a business.  EFCA would effectively eliminate the secret ballot election process by creating automatic union certification if a majority of employees sign a card authorizing union representation. 

The second detrimental provision of EFCA is that after a union is formed, it would “fast track” contract negotiations and impose federally appointed arbitrators into the negotiation, who can set the terms of a two-year contract to which the employer must adhere and has no right of appeal.  

Finally, EFCA would drastically change the rights employers have to communicate with their employees.  As the law stands now, business owners may share facts about the impact unionization would have on business.  EFCA would impose harsh new penalties on businesses--but not on unions--for violations during the union recognition process. 

Employees can not afford to have their right to secretly unionize taken away, and employers can not afford to have the growth and productivity of their business stifled and federally mandated.