Big Biz LOVES binding arbitration – except in EFCA

Curly, Moe and Larry of pseudo-progressive businesses Starbucks, Whole Foods and Costcoo (actually, Costco is somewhat more progressive on the matter at hand than the other two) have now shown why they’re offering an alternative to the Employee Free Choice Act – they HATE being “bound” by binding arbitration:

Whole Foods Market chief executive John Mackey said that binding arbitration is “not the way we normally do things in the United States” and that allowing workers to organize without a secret ballot “violates a bedrock principle of American democracy.”

Really, John?

Let’s say Whole Foods starts offering home food delivery, and I sign a contract.

Are you going to tell me you WON’T have a binding arbitration of disputes clause in there? Stop lying to me.

Oh, why are these folks the Larry, Moe and Curly?

Well, Starbucks has been pretty decent on environmental issues. It’s been middle-of-the-road on fair trade coffee. BUT — it’s no slouch in its anti-unionism.

Whole Foods? Pretty weak in its commitment to food sustainability, and most of its organic stuff is Big Ag produced. It’s damn good at marketing a burnished image, though.

Making this worse, Curly and Moe also go apocalyptic on us:

Giving organizers the ability to use card check, Schultz said, would lead to a slew of separate bargaining units at a company like his, leading to “havoc and significant cost and disruption.” Mackey had an even grimmer view. “Armed with those weapons, you will see unionization sweep across the United States and set workplaces at war with each other,” he said. “I do not think it would be a good thing.”

So, John Mackey also stands exposed as an anti-capitalist.

Larry, Costco CEO James D. Sinegal, is being more low-key. And, tis true that Costco has a much flatter salary structure than rival Sam’s Club.

Maybe we need to not forget the Shemp of the issue, former Clinton advisor and triangulation squish Lanny Davis. Davis makes clear that’s his angle on this issue — he wants to give President Obama a triangulation option.