Canada loves it some EFCA?

We have previously posted, here, here, here, here and here about Canadian data usefulness as a predictor of what EFCA might produce in the United States. The Economic Policy Institute has released data on first contract arbitration in Manitoba, the Province with the most EFCA-like FCA provisions. The small sample study notes that 87.5% (14 of 16) businesses who engaged in FCA between 2001 and 2007, remain in business. The AFL-CIO blog touts this as "evidence" EFCA is not a jobs killer. That a business remains in business is of course a positive fact, but really provides little proof that the business is no worse off than if it had not been required to submit to an imposed collective bargaining agreement. How successful could the 16 have been without this burden, would the two failed enterprises survived? The news in this piece is not that FCA is good, but rather that it was used only 14 times in 7 years.

Canadian card check scholarship

We have followed other comments on the effect of card check legislation in Canada and its relevance to analysis of the issue in the United States. Previous posts are here and here. Now there is something with a lot of substance to review. More after the jump.

EFCA and Canada

This Forbes.com piece does a good job of pointing out the differences between Canadian labor laws and ours. Canada's federal labor law applies to federal employees and certain national industries (i.e. banking) - about 10% of the workforce. Canada leaves the regulation of the other 90% to her provincial governments. In 1975, all of them used something like the original EFCA's card check provisions, but today 6 of the Canada's 10 provinces provide for secret ballot elections. We have previously written about Canadian labor law here and here.

Card Check is unpopular in Quebec

The Canadian Province of Quebec permits certification of unions based upon card check. According to a recent survey, 71% of those polled believed that the provincial government should amend the current law to require a secret ballot election. Among self-identified union workers 80% favored a secret ballot election. Of those surveyed 23% were union workers, 33% were non-union. The study inconsistently suggests both  44% and 47% were not workers. Seems like a lot of non-workers were polled.