Battle Born PAC's Blog

Our Honorary Chairman, Senator John Ensign, participated in a blogger conference call earlier this week to discuss the importance of stopping card check.

Here's a roundup of the discussion.

National Review's The Corner:

Sen. John Ensign (R, Nev.) spoke in a conference call today with bloggers and reporters about the status of EFCA in the Senate, particularly the mandatory binding arbitration provision to which Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D, Ark.) recently objected. He said he was unaware of any negotiations in the Senate to water down that provision -- to adopt some kind of arbitration (a few possibilities here) supposedly less threatening to business, for example -- in an effort to pass a version of the bill and keep organized labor happy.

"The mandatory binding arbitration is going to dramatically drive up the cost of labor in the United States and make us less competitive," said Ensign. He added, though, that the public education campaign against EFCA has been successful in raising awareness.

"So far, we've been very effective," he said. Speaking of a recent trip to Silicon Valley, he said that businesses and workers there "understand the implications now. If the Employee Free Choice Act becomes law, you're looking at massive job losses in the tech industry because so many of those jobs are so easy to move overseas."

American Spectator:

Sen. John Ensign, speaking to bloggers on a Wednesday afternoon conference call, said that if Democrats were successful at passing the Employee Free Choice Act, the chances of repealing it should Republicans eventually return to power would be "pretty slim to non-existent."

Overturning the legislation would probably require 63 to 64 Republicans in the Senate, Republican control of the House of Representatives, and a Republican President, making the prospect "almost impossible," Ensign said.

In the face of erroding support for EFCA, proponents are talking about various compromise measures, including ditching the controversial provision that would deny workers the right to a secret ballot election on unionization, while mantaining the binding arbitration measure. But the arbitration part is just as worrisome, he said.

Ensign said that unions would never negotiate if they knew that a government arbiter would eventually step in and dictate to employers the terms of a labor agreement. Such a provision would drive up the cost of labor, and force technology companies to move jobs overseas, he predicted.

Help Senator Ensign stop the Employee "No" Choice Act by joining the Protect The Secret Ballot Facebook group.