Fighting on behalf of Colorado's thousands of small businesses.
Diedra Garcia, president, DRG Construction in Lakewood.
(All Photos By: Dean Rotbart)
Small business, a key engine of Colorado’s economy and job growth, faces devastating federal legislation that will at best stunt growth and at worst outright destroy many local companies.
That is the stark message delivered today in Denver by a group of concerned small business owners and their representatives who joined like-minded small business owners in Arkansas, Maine, Louisiana, Nebraska, Pennsylvania and Virginia in an effort to halt the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), a.k.a. “card check.”
“This will shut down job creation,” says A. F. “Tony” Gagliardi flatly. Gagliardi, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) organization, speaks for 7,500 small business owners in Colorado.
Gagliardi told Examiner.com that no business is too small to be a target of EFCA’s union organizing efforts. In fact, Gagliardi says that even businesses with as few as five employees will be targeted and may not even realize they are being organized until notified after the fact by the National Labor Relations Board. That, in turn, will set in motion a series of events that leads to binding wage and benefit arbitration for many small businesses.
NFIB's A.F. "Tony" Gagliardi, speaking for
7,500 small business members.
Diedra Garcia, president of Lakewood-based DRG Construction, a family owned commercial contractor with 34 full time employees, was one of several speakers at today’s event to note that EFCA is more likely to cost area workers job opportunities than it is to improve wage and work conditions for existing employees.
Speaking to members of the press from a podium in the parking lot of the Hispanic Contractors of Colorado, Garcia explained that compliance with EFCA rules and regulations alone will raise the cost of doing business for small companies – costs that are not readily recoverable.
“Some employers do take advantage of their employees and some employees do take advantage of their employers,” Garcia said. But she added that small businesses and their employees generally are able to resolve such periodic imbalances without the need for the heavy hands of federal regulation and national unions.
Garcia noted her own business and so many like hers view employees as their most valued assets. Without union interference, she explained, owners and workers develop a “relationship of teamwork and mutual respect, with client satisfaction and excellence in our industry being the primary shared goals.”
“In a unionized workforce there are no shared goals,” Garcia said. Rather, what arises is a “situation of us versus them.”
At the podium: Helga Grunerud, executive director, Hispanic Contractors
of Colorado. Behind her are other speakers at today's EFCA protest.
The local organizers of today’s event, most of whom traveled to Washington D.C. earlier this summer to make their case before Colorado’s Congressional delegation, contend that EFCA will eliminate the secret ballot in union elections thereby “allowing individual workers to be pressured into publicly signing a card supporting unionization.” This so-called ‘card check’ process has been soundly criticized by both business and workers groups nationally.
A statement from the local organizers distributed to the media at today’s event goes on to point out that the legislative bills currently under consideration by both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate empower “government bureaucrats to force arbitration on workers and small businesses without their consent.” This forced arbitration is perhaps more onerous on small business owners than even the open ballot process, organizers contend.
While the official title of the pending U.S. legislation is the Employee Free Choice Act, event organizers repeatedly dubbed the legislation, the Employee “Forced” Choice Act.
Among Colorado elected officials who are co-sponsors of EFCA, despite its damaging impact on the state’s vital small business community, are Representatives Diana DeGette and Betsy Markey.
Gagliardi, whose NFIB represents more than 350,000 members nationally, says the real battle ahead lies in the U.S. Senate, where opponents to EFCA hope they can prevent the bill’s sponsors from obtaining the 60 votes necessary to prevent a filibuster by opponents.
Gagliardi told Examiner.com that Senator Mark Udall has indicated that he is not satisfied with the Senate version of the bill as currently worded and is looking for a compromise. As for Senator Michael Bennet, says Gagliardi, “it’s anybody’s guess. He still hasn’t come out and said where he is on this issue, which is very frustrating.”
In regards to reaching a suitable compromise, Gagliardi says when it comes to EFCA, there can be none. It is a sentiment Garcia echoes.
“We pride ourselves on the high quality of our work which stems from establishing a strong bond with our employees,” she notes in a prepared statement. “There is no possible compromise legislation that they can come up with that’s worth destroying that relationship. EFCA is a ‘solution’ in search of a problem.”
Comments
Garcia is a scab organization that hires illegals. She is one of the biggest hypocrites in Colorado. EFCA is not a job killer! Ruthless employers who undermine employee rights and send jobs overseas are the real culprits such as Garcia. Without Unions the answer was always NO! No to safe working conditions. No to wage increases. No to breaks. No to bereavement. No to workers compensation. No to health benefits. No to grievances. No family leave to care for your sick and dying. No to social security. No to OSHA. No to unemployment comp. Don't swallow this garbage from Garcia and her kind. They want to turn back the clock to the "good old days" of union busting. EFCA, YES!
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