The Case Against The Employee Free Choice Act

With the Obama administration in the White House and an overwhelmingly Democratic Congress, passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) appears likely. But it can and should be stopped if at all possible, given the adverse impact that it will have on the workplace and the overall economy. In The Case against the Employee Free Choice Act, Richard Epstein examines this proposed legislation and why it is a large step backward in labor relations that will work to the detriment of employees, employers, and the public at large.

ÔWachter and Estlund have assembled a feast on the economic analysis of issues in labor and employment law for scholars and policy-makers. The volume begins with foundational discussions of the economic analysis of the individual employment relationship and collective bargaining. It then progresses to discussions of the theoretical and empirical work on a wide range of important labor and employment law topics including: union organizing and employee choice, the impact of unions on firm and economic performance, the impact of unions on the enforcement of legal rights, just cause for dismissal, covenants not to compete and employment discrimination. Anyone who wants to study what economists have to say on these topics would do well to begin with this collection.Õ Ð Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt, Indiana University Bloomington School of Law, US This Research Handbook assembles the original work of leading legal and economic scholars, working in a variety of traditions and methodologies, on the economic analysis of labor and employment law. In addition to surveying the current state of the art on the economics of labor markets and employment relations, the volumeÕs 16 chapters assess aspects of traditional labor law and union organizing, the law governing the employment contract and termination of employment, employment discrimination and other employer mandates, restrictions on employee mobility, and the forum and remedies for labor and employment claims. Comprising a variety of approaches, the Research Handbook on the Economics of Labor and Employment Law will appeal to legal scholars in labor and employment law, industrial relations scholars and labor economists.

Barack Obama’s famous “Blueprint for Change,” part and parcel of the campaign that culminated in his historic election as U.S. president in November 2008, openly announced his support for the Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 1409) suggesting that major change was imminent in U.S. labor and employment law. Although promised legislative change has yet to materialize, there appears to be a growing consensus that the current system for addressing employment disputes in union-represented and non-union workplaces deserves renewed attention and needs significant restructuring. Thus, the issues taken up by this prominent U.S. conference remain relevant to policy debates which will likely continue to rage in the United States for years to come. Based on papers delivered at the 2009 conference of the New York University School of Law’s Center on Labor and Employment Law – the 62nd in this venerable and highly influential series – the book presents articles updated by the authors to reflect more recent developments, as well as new papers to ensure a comprehensive and current analysis of both what has actually changed and which trends seem to be gaining momentum. Twenty-two outstanding scholars and practitioners in U.S. labor law and practice pay special attention to such issues as the following: mandatory arbitration of employment disputes in non-union sector; call for improved administration of the National Labor Relations Act in expediting elections and reinstating discriminatees; more privatized forms of dispute resolution such as arbitration and mediation; card-check and neutrality agreements bypassing government processes; proposed reform of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act; evaluating market-based defenses to pay equity claims; EEOC initiatives in public enforcement of equality law; and challenges to labor relations in state and local governments.