A group of three big corporations—Starbucks, Whole Foods and Costco—have floated a proposal for labor law reform that just won’t cut it. These big corporations are casting this proposal as a “compromise,” but it’s not. It’s not good for workers, it’s good for CEOs, and it fails to address the problems that are keeping workers from being able to form unions.

The new proposal would enable corporations to unilaterally reject the will of a majority of employees who are seeking to form a union—as they do now. Unlike the Employee Free Choice Act, this proposal wouldn’t put the choice about how to form a union in the hands of workers, and it wouldn’t guarantee that workers who form a union can get a fair first contract. It would also make it easier for corporations to initiate drives to get rid of a union, which should be up to workers, not management.

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), two sponsors of the Employee Free Choice Act, say that the new corporate proposal would ultimately keep the broken, management-dominated status quo in place. It isn’t the change America’s workers and our economy need, say Miller and Harkin:

This proposal is unacceptable. It was written by CEOs for CEOs. It is not a serious attempt at labor law reform because it fails to fundamentally address key problems that currently prevent workers from being able to join together and bargain for a better life.

AFL-CIO Legislative Director Bill Samuel says the new proposal misses the point because it fails to include provisions to recognize a union if the majority of workers sign cards indicating their support for one.

The Employee Free Choice Act is about protecting the fundamental freedom of workers to bargain with their employers for a better life and to join a union without corporate interference and harassment.

The proposal being circulated by these companies falls short of meeting these standards.

We are open to discussing the legislation with parties who are legitimately concerned with protecting workers. However, a proposal coming from corporations, some of whom have their own history of violating workers’ rights, is simply not an alternative that lives up to giving workers back the freedom to form unions.

(As David Groves of the Washington State Labor Council reports, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is no model employer—he’s a “poster boy” for why we need the Employee Free Choice Act.)

Miller and Harkin say that the proposal suggested by Starbucks, Whole Foods and Costco is a distraction—a way to deter real change, rather than an honest effort at fixing the system for forming unions.

It is nothing more than a classic Washington lobbying campaign intended to confuse the issues and disguise the real agenda of maintaining the status quo.

Despite largely leaving corporate power intact, this proposal is likely to be a non-starter among the Big Business lobbies who are carrying out the anti-Employee Free Choice disinformation campaign. Thomas Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, called it a “no-compromise” bill in an address to business leaders in Denver last week—signaling division among corporate honchos about how to respond to the Employee Free Choice Act.

Religious denominations, civil rights groups, community organizations, hundreds of members of Congress and allies of workers around the country understand addressing the challenges facing our economy means ensuring workers have a voice on the job. And that means passing the Employee Free Choice Act.