If the labor movement can muscle the absurdly titled Employee Free Choice Act through Congress, President Obama will likely sign it, given the role that unions played in his election. But already, Obama is talking about finding a better way to deal with the concerns of union organizers than this one-sided bill -- and for good reason.

The Employee Free Choice Act attempts to address what many labor leaders see as an uneven playing field by tilting the turf in the other direction.

At the heart of labor's concerns is the fact that, once employees petition for a union election, management can lobby hard and often during working hours to get people to vote against the idea. Labor leaders also feel that too often intimidation is used to get workers to vote against having a union. They also say that current law makes it unreasonably difficult to get an employer to agree to a first contract with a newly formed union.

These complaints have some merit, but the solution being peddled on Capitol Hill is unreasonable. As currently constituted, the Employee Free Choice Act does not merit the support of Maine's delegation in Washington.

The act would grant union certification if a majority of employees signaled their desire to form a union by signing cards that would be submitted to the National Labor Relations Board. These cards are not secret ballots. Instead, a union organizer can be present when they're filled out.

Opponents point out that this can too easily lead to abuse and intimidation from the labor side. Conveniently, the bill does not make decertification of a union as easy as filling out cards. Employers and workers who wanted to get rid of a union would have a more a difficult path.

The legislation also toughens the penalties for employers who try to intimidate union organizers or their supporters. And it requires binding arbitration when a newly formed union and an employer can't reach agreement on a first contract.

Taking away the right of workers to vote in secret on whether to have a union is fundamentally unfair. In advocating for this approach, unions have ceded the high ground and lost an opportunity to build support for its concerns about employer intimidation and resistance to first contracts.

A sensible compromise that preserves the secret ballot is what Obama is hoping for, and depending on the details, such a bill might be reasonable. But as written, the Employee Free Choice Act doesn't live up to its name.

Copyright © 2009 Blethen Maine Newspapers