What I'm Hearing...The Employee Free Choice Act Redux

Yesterday I was at various networking events and other meetings from 7:30 AM until 9:45 PM. Naturally, I'm a little behind on my e-mail as a result! This morning, I discovered the following e-mail sent Tuesday 3/10/09 from SHRM, which I'm reprinting here for you. It's a great summary of the latest news from Capitol Hill.

"Today, the Employee Free Choice Act was introduced in Congress! The bill was sponsored by Representative George Miller (D-CA), the House Education and Labor Committee Chair, and Senator Tom Harkin (D-MA).

The legislation would amend the National Labor Relations Act to allow unions to use the “card check” process – and bypass the secure, private election format – each time they attempt to organize workers.

Background

The National Labor Relations Act currently provides two opportunities for employees to decide whether or not to form or join a union:

Private ballot election - When a union receives a majority of votes through a secret ballot election administered by the National Labor Relations Board, the union is certified as the sole bargaining agent on behalf of the employees, or

“Card check” recognition - When a union receives at least 30 percent of signed authorization cards, the employer can request that a private ballot election be held. (When a union receives at least 50 percent of signed cards, the employer can either recognize the union immediately or request an election.)

Legislation

The EFCA would dramatically change federal labor law. The legislation would allow a union to bypass the election process after collecting authorization cards from a majority of employees. Thus, employers would lose the right to request that an election be held.

If enacted into law, EFCA would:

Eliminate employees’ opportunity to vote in a federally-administered, private ballot election;

Require binding arbitration within 120 days after a union is certified through a signed card collection process, if the employer and the union are unable to reach an agreement;

Restrict an employer’s communications to employees about the workplace issues involved in the union organizing drive; and

Create new fines against employers for an expanded list of unfair labor practices."

Now's the time to reach out to your members of Congress to show your support or voice your opposition to the law. It's expected that this legislation will move through Congress quickly.

Steroid Hearings: What HR Can Learn From This

I have a feeling that Congress has a few other important things to do than to grill baseball over past steroids and HGH use (you know...Iraq, Afghanistan, the economy, the job market, the housing market, the threat of terrorism--and the fact that only about 20% of Americans approve of Congress is surprising to some people), but since they did, it brings up one very, very interesting HR issue, which was buried within the whole circus atmosphere yesterday, and that was: why the heck did Roger Clemens continue to employ Brian McNamee? And not only employee him, but befriend him and trust him...

Jason Stark of ESPN points out in his blog here (may need Insider for access), this exchange:

Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton ran through a laundry list of all the unseemly stuff McNamee had allegedly done to Clemens -- lies about Ph.D.s, claiming the Rocket's workout program was McNamee's workout program, using Clemens' photo in an ad without permission, etc. -- and wondered, "Why did you continue to employ him?"

This seemed like a set-up question -- a chance for Clemens to talk about what a great guy he is. Instead, the Rocket rambled all over the District of Columbia. After about four attempts to get Clemens to sing his own praises, Clemens finally caught on.

"Why did you keep this man? It's very simple," Norton said. "He did some pretty horrendous things."

"I'm a forgiving person," Clemens said, finally.

Oh. That explains it. That satisfied Norton, anyhow.

"Mr. Clemens," she concluded. "All I can say is, I'm sure you're going to heaven."

I'm not sure if Norton (who Colbert Report fans may know from her frequent spots on the show as a famous "delegate") was being sarcastic at the end of that, but this brings up huge character issues and brings up the Human Resources issue. There certainly is value in giving second chances to people, but someone such as Clemens should have more careful with someone like McNamee. That list does not even include his rape arrest, injecting his wife with HGH, giving him an amphetamine, or other incendiary things he has supposedly done.

And if you look at Clemens testimony, it seems like these issues were something Clemens was aware of: click here

The Houston Chronicle picks up on this as well (click here):

The Clemens defense team has been chipping away at the credibility of McNamee for the better part of two months. McNamee is an admitted drug dealer who was involved in a 2001 date-rape case in which he lied to police but was never charged. He isn't the sort of person you'd want spending an inordinate amount of time around your family — yet he was an invited overnight guest in the Clemens home many times.

"I'm a forgiving person," Clemens said.

How forgiving? Clemens asserted that he didn't learn until after the fact that his wife, Debbie, received human-growth hormone injections from McNamee in 2003. Despite that, Clemens continued to employ McNamee until 2007. Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., said — either sympathetically or ironically — to Clemens: "I'm sure you're going to heaven."

This man was not only employed by Clemens but by Andy Pettitte and the New York Yankees organization. Some Human Resources professional should have seen the flags in McNamee's record and kept him away from the team. Either Clemens or Pettitte should have realized that they needed to entrust someone else. This problem was NOT just a Yankee problem either (I feel, as a Yankee fan, I should be quick to point that out); the San Fransisco Giants let Barry Bonds personal trainer, Greg Anderson, into the clubhouse and the Mets let in Kirk Radmonski.

Someone in Human Resources should have stepped up with background checks and more oversight to stop letting in drug dealers into Major League Baseball clubhouses...because the truth is that letting these type of people into your company will not "send you to heaven" as a Human Resources Professional

Update: Due to our responses we would like to add in Global Warming, the decline of the American dollar, ridiculously high college costs and the breakdown on the public school system to our list of problems Congress probably should have been worried about rather than steroids...but I digress...