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The misleading attacks by Big Business on the Employee Free Choice Act now are aimed at the provision that would guarantee that workers can get a fair first contract. Their scare tactics are not only misleading, they're hypocritical.

Right now, workers lack a legal means to ensure they get a fair first contract. Recent research shows that even after workers successfully win a union and the ability to bargain, they're too often blocked from getting a fair first contract. Fifty-two percent of workers don't have a contract a full year after the election, and 37 percent don't have a first contract two years after the election. For too many workers, the promise of the freedom to bargain is out of reach because the law doesn't offer them any help.

The Employee Free Choice Act provides a process to help first-time bargainers to reach an agreement, through mediation and, for issues the parties are unable to resolve on their own, arbitration. The reason we need first-contract arbitration is to create an incentive for companies to bargain voluntarily with their workers.

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(Cross-posted from the AFL-CIO Now Blog.)

Today on Capitol Hill, labor law experts and a California worker exposed the ugly truth about corporate abuses of workers trying to exercise their freedom to form unions and bargain for a better life.

At the center of the discussion: Kate Bronfenbrenner's new report, "No Holds Barred: The Intensification of Employer Opposition to Organizing," released by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and the American Rights at Work Education Fund. The report shows that the problems the Employee Free Choice Act would address are getting worse.

Bronfenbrenner has studied these issues for decades as the director of labor education research at Cornell University's School of Industrial Relations. This is her fourth survey over 20 years, enabling her to put into historical perspective the obstacles workers face today.

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Barack Obama promised during his presidential campaign to "finally make the Employee Free Choice Act the law of the land."

So why did I read this in today's Washington Post?

The president-elect also gave his support for legislation that would make it easier for workers to unionize, but he said there may be other ways to achieve the same goal without angering businesses. And while many Democrats on Capitol Hill are eager to see a quick vote on that bill, he indicated no desire to rush into the contentious issue.

"If we're losing half a million jobs a month, then there are no jobs to unionize, so my focus first is on those key economic priority items I just mentioned," he said. "Let's see what the legislative docket looks like."

Marc Ambinder has the exact wording of Obama's answer, which the Washington Post paraphrased.

A lot of labor unions backed Obama during the primaries, and even more backed him during the general election campaign. Unions were there for Obama when he needed them. Now, they need him to follow through on his promise.

This diary by TomP lays out the very strong case for passing the Employee Free Choice Act.

Why do we need to dance around looking for some way to help unions without angering businesses? Obama won the election and has high approval ratings. Democrats enlarged their Congressional majorities. Now is the time for the president to spend his political capital on getting good laws through Congress.

Setting the policy merits aside for the moment, this is a poor negotiating strategy.

By announcing before taking office that his goal is to help unions without arousing intense opposition from businesses, Obama has just given the business lobby every incentive to raise hell about even the most innocuous bill to support workers' rights.

He should not have telegraphed that he is willing to sacrifice the Employee Free Choice Act if necessary. You never announce before negotiations begin what concessions you are willing to make. (For more on Obama's negotiating strategy so far, read this diary by bruh3.)

In any event, there isn't going to be some magical bill that would make it significantly easier for workers to organize, but which the business lobby would take in stride. They will fight every bill perceived as pro-labor, and they will claim that it will cost jobs, just like they fought any number of good laws, from minimum wage increases to the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Here's hoping that incoming Labor Secretary Hilda Solis (a passionate supporter of the EFCA) will be able to strengthen Obama's resolve to fight for this bill.

By the way, American Rights at Work just launched a major tv advertising campaign in support of the EFCA and has a petition you can sign if you care about this issue.

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I've got some great new labor links to share with you this week!  Check 'em out, and if there's something you don't see here, add it in the comments...

• A huge victory in New York: 28,000 child care workers joined the United Federation of Teachers, with help from both ACORN and Gov. Eliot Spitzer.  This is great news, both for the workers and the children they care for, as standards of care for children, and quality of life for the workers, will both rise, and the city as a whole will benefit.

• American Rights at Work recently re-launched its website; they are now using the open source Joomla content management system.  I know this is a very geeky thing to get excited about, but I'm lovin' their new RSS feed - it's the kind of thing that makes a blogger's day.  Check out the new site and, while you're there, flip through ARAW's new report on Verizon's Broken Promises (PDF).

• An alert reader pointed me to U1TV on YouTube - it's a channel dedicated to pro-labor video clips.  Bravo to David Williams for putting these videos online, and for adding some great Billy Bragg songs to the soundtrack.  Next up?  I'd love to see some videos about how to deal with abusive bosses, how to contact and join a union, what a union is about, etc.  Even better?  I'd like to see some of these videos make their way into mass media TV shows.

• A second round of bravos for David Williams are again in order for the recent launch of NoBusters, a site which exposes union-busting and leverages some of the videos on U1TV.

• There's a great piece in Alternet this week about Young Workers United, a new labor group which seeks to protect young workers from workplace abuse.  In These Times has also published an interesting look at the Change to Win labor federation, asking whether the split from AFL-CIO resulted in tangible results.

• Last but certainly not least - some of you may remember my series of posts about an idea for an anti-union-busting blog aimed at employers and business owners.  Well, we're all grown up now, with our own Google Group and everything.  But we're still recruiting.  So if you want to join an interesting project to help turn the tide against union busters, sign up!  Just request to join the group (either in the comments or directly through the Google Groups interface) and I'll get you signed up.

Got anything else to share?  Drop it in the comments!

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