Wannabe progressive businesses Whole Foods, Costcos and Starbucks are leading a dirty, underhanded campaign against the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), is a bill that will allow workers to decide how they want to form unions, create stiffer penalties for anti-union activities by employers and mandate binding arbitration after 120 days if the union and company can not agree on a first contract.
The CEO's of Starbucks, Costcos and Whole Foods have put forward a bill that would strip employees of the right to decide how they want to form a union and do away with the binding arbitration. They are hoping to get support from Republicans and conservative Democrats to derail the passage of EFCA.
The CEO of Whole Foods, John Mackey, says his employees don't need a union because they get paid high wages and have good benefits. Funny, because a NYC employee of Whole Foods making $11.50/hour (that's a yearly salary of $23,920 before taxes) was fired for eating a tuna sandwhich. I wonder if the employee agrees with Mackey.
Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), the only Republican to co-sponsor the bill in 2003 and vote for it 2007, announced today that he would not support EFCA because we are in a recession. Which is exactly why we need it passed!
