Political warnings issued at Family Enterprise Center breakfast

story by Aric Mitchell
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Ben Shipley has a simple message for business owners regarding involvement with union and small business legislation at the state and federal level: “If you’re not part of the process, you’re part of the problem.”

Shipley, an attorney with Cross, Gunter, Witherspoon, and Galchus, addressed area small business owners at the Family Enterprise Center (FEC) quarterly breakfast on the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith (UAFS) Campus on Thursday (Mar. 17).

Shipley encouraged attendees to get involved in the legislative process and highlighted a number of potentially harmful bills that are geared toward unionizing both private and public sectors. Among Shipley’s targets were the Employee Free Choice Act, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and the Healthy Families Act, and general trends from state legislative proposals and unemployment benefits.

Shipley referred to the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) as the 100% Unionization Act, and also referenced Arkansas House Bill 2145, introduced by Rep. John Walker, D-Little Rock, as something that “significantly weakens right-to-work laws.”

Shipley continued: “Currently, you can sever ties with an employee for any reason as long as it’s not discrimination. This new legislation will kill the business environment because it essentially gives all public employees the same status as unions. It requires everyone to have just cause and documentation. What is ‘just cause’? Whatever a judge or arbitrator says that it is. And right now it just targets public employees, but these bills are designed as a foot in the door. Businesses like your own are soon to follow.”

With a legal specialty in labor and employment, Shipley believes many of the laws are well-meaning, but open up a “Pandora’s Box” for unfair litigation to small businesses.

FEC Director Dave Robertson agreed: “These laws are hurting employees because ultimately, it means it will be harder to get a job in the first place. They’re not helping; in fact, they would have the opposite impact. Business owners should take action. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.”

While Shipley admits that the EFCA was “buried a bit” by Congress, he noted that some elected officials, including U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., are gearing up a number of compromise efforts that will open the door for further unionization in the future. The “compromise ideas” that Shipley refers to include the following:
• Quick elections via mail-in ballots during which, according to Shipley, union officials would “get together over a few beers, vote one way across the board, and then mail in.”

• Unions would also be granted access to employees and facilities under the provision.

“You think you own your business?” Shipley asked. “Think again.”

• There would be enhanced penalties, including punitive damages, against employers.
There would be no enhanced penalties against unions.

In other topics, Shipley singled out the dangers of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which could hold employers legally accountable for dress codes and restroom facilities geared toward the gender with which one identifies, regardless of birth sex. He also noted that the Healthy Families Act would force small businesses to grant 7 days of sick pay in addition to current benefit policies.

Employees would also be able to take time off in the smallest increments that payroll allows.

“If you measure every 6 minutes, then your employees could take off for that amount of time. It would be a logistical nightmare with consequences that would affect your bottom line,” Shipley said.

To close, Shipley touched on unemployment benefits at the state level, and what that could mean for small businesses in additional tax burdens.

According to data from the Department of Workforce Services, the current average for earned wages in Arkansas is near the very bottom in the region (at $670.51 per week). The maximum unemployment benefit, however, is the highest in the region (at $441.00 per week), more than Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Since 2007, the unemployment insurance fund balance has plummeted from $142.8 million in the black to $343.6 million in the red.

“That money has a cost,” Shipley said. “It will have to be paid for, and that means higher taxes. And who’s going to foot most of that bill? You (the small business owner) are.”

Shipley continued: “You need to let your elected officials know your positions on these things. Keep in mind few in Congress have never made a payroll in their lives. They are interested in what the business community thinks and anxious to hear from you. Considering these are people, who can take away your profits with the stroke of a pen, you should feel motivated.”