Senate Democrats pull back on Specter’s card-check prediction

Kevin Bogardus and J. Taylor Rushing of TheHill.com report -”Democratic senators on Wednesday downplayed Sen. Arlen Specter’s (D-Pa.) prediction that the chamber would pass a contentious union-organizing bill this year, saying they are in the process of shoring up support for a compromise that is being hashed out.

Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), one of several negotiators working to reach agreement on a modified version of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), also known as card-check, said they have made progress toward a deal but have yet to ink one.”

To read the rest of the story click here.

Michael O’Brien writes on TheHill.com - “A top labor official said Monday that President Obama and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel have indicated that they will not bring up “card check” legislation until after healthcare reform is done in Congress.

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka, the expected incoming president of the influential union, pledged during a web chat on the liberal blog firedoglake that organized labor would work to pass healthcare reform in order to move onto one of its top priorities, the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).”

The Business Council want to remind its members not o think that the battle is won; take this as “pressure pays off” and it is hard to fight many different battles all at once. Keeping Card Check off the agenda until health care reform is done is one step closer to our goal of making sure card check isn’t on any agenda. 2010 is an election year and some members will find it harder to cast a vote on this in an election year.

Sam Hananel of the Associated Press in Washington writes on the Law.com website - “The willingness of some Democrats to drop the “card check” portion of a union organizing bill has led opponents of the measure to intensify their attack on another major provision: binding arbitration if a new union and management can’t agree on a first contract within 120 days.

“We suspected from the beginning that the binding arbitration was packaged with the elimination of the secret ballot in order to create a straw man they could take down later,” said Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C.

A small group of senators led by Democrat Tom Harkin of Iowa is working out a compromise of the Employee Free Choice Act, one of the most polarizing measures in Congress and the top legislative priority of labor leaders, who want to reverse years of declining union membership.

Although Democrats have 60 votes in the Senate, several moderates — including Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania — have insisted they cannot support the bill as is.”

To read the rest of the story click here.

Steve Greenhouse of the New York Times writes - “Democrats Drop Key Part of Bill to Assist Unions. A half-dozen senators friendly to labor have decided to drop a central provision of a bill that would have made it easier to organize workers.

The so-called card-check provision — which senators decided to scrap to help secure a filibuster-proof 60 votes — would have required employers to recognize a union as soon as a majority of workers signed cards saying they wanted a union. Currently, employers can insist on a secret-ballot election, a higher hurdle for unions.

The abandonment of card check was another example of the power of moderate Democrats to constrain their party’s more liberal legislative efforts. Though the Democrats have a 60-40 vote advantage in the Senate, and President Obama supports the measure, several moderate Democrats opposed the card-check provision as undemocratic.”

To read the rest of Steve’s story click here.

The Business Council believes that it is more important than ever to keep the pressure on and our momentum heading in the right direction, if business is to succeed it killing any chances of Card Check legislation from being considered during this session.

The Hill.com reports -”Passing the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) would result in millions in additional political funds for organized labor over the next 10 years, a business group opposed to the legislation will argue in a report to be released Tuesday.

Unions would stand to gain an additional $320 million more to spend on political activities in year ten alone with a ten year total of $1.75 billion, according to a report put together by the anti-EFCA Workforce Fairness Institute (WFI).”

To read the rest of the story click here.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce this week is flying local business leaders to Washington to lobby against a possible compromise on the Employee Free Choice Act. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, has been leading a push among Senate Democrats to adjust the bill so it can overcome a Republican filibuster. Lawmakers have proposed quick union elections and mail-in ballots as possible alternatives to the “card-check” portion of the current bill, which strips companies of the ability to demand secret ballot elections before workers can form a union.The business leaders will meet with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who has been pushing mail-in ballots as an alternative to the card-check provision of the bill. As currently written, that piece would allow workers to form a union if a majority sign authorization cards and eliminate a company’s ability to demand a secret ballot election. Lawmakers have also proposed quicker elections as part of a possible compromise

From the National Journal:

HARKIN: REID WILL ALLOW CARD-CHECK VOTE

By Kasie Hunt

Senate Majority Leader Reid will allow a vote on labor’s favored version of the Employee Free Choice Act before the end of the year if senators cannot find a compromise that 60 senators can support, the bill’s chief Senate proponent said today.

“I’m hopeful that our negotiations will bear fruit and that we’ll have a reasonable compromise that will be supported by 60 people,” said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. “There will come a time when if that falls through, I have the assurances from Harry Reid that we’ll just bring the original bill to the floor, we’ll have a vote.”

Reid’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

The original legislation strips employers of the ability to demand a secret ballot election before workers can form a union. It also requires management and labor to use binding arbitration to get a first contract if they cannot agree within the first 120 days of bargaining.

Harkin said he is meeting today with some moderate Senate Democrats.

Forcing a vote could put some of them — including Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Dianne Feinstein of California — in a difficult spot. Feinstein has floated using mail-in ballots as an alternative to the card check provision of the bill.

Quicker elections are a possibility.

Specter has said he is a proponent of “last best offer” arbitration, in which labor and management submit offers to an arbitrator who decides the one to be used. The goal is to discourage both sides from submitting extreme proposals for fear the arbitrator will accept the other side’s offer.

Specter said last month that he was optimistic about prospects for a compromise. He faces a likely primary challenge from Rep. Joe Sestak and will likely need the support of organized labor in the contest. Meanwhile, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce flew small-business leaders to Washington to meet with Feinstein and other members today and Wednesday, when they will push against a compromise.

An article in today’s New York Times highlights a study by Cornell University which finds Antiunion Tactics Are Becoming More Common.
Below is the latest from Washington:

Senator Tom Harkin is now encouraging other Senators such as Specter, Caper, Pryor, and Feinstein to consider other proposals. Among them are the concepts of “quickie elections”, “mail-in voting”, “union access”, and “baseball-style arbitration.”

Quickie elections would preserve the use of the secret ballot process, but on a compressed time frame which would put the employer at a disadvantage in communicating their message to employees, even though unions will have had weeks and months to communicate to employees during the drive to get cards signed. Quickie elections will thus deny employees the ability to make a fully informed decision.
Mail-in voting would have workers send in their ballots by mail. However, because unions are legally permitted to visit workers’ homes, they could pressure workers to sign and mail the ballots in front of them, taking away any private vote. In addition, such organizing activity could be conducted without the employer ever knowing that a union campaign was going on.

Union access provisions would require employers who call meetings with their employees to discuss unionization to give unions equal access to their employees, on company time and on company premises. Unions already enjoy the opportunity to meet with employees in a wide array of locations, including their homes (employers must provide the unions with employees’ addresses) in ways that the employer is prohibited. Unions are also allowed to make any promises and comments they wish, while employers are restricted in what they can say. Finally, employees who are sympathetic to the union are allowed to approach employees in the workplace and express their support for having a union. Expanding union access is not only unnecessary; it would be disruptive to business operations and expose workers to harassment.

Baseball-style arbitration refers to a form of binding arbitration used to settle contract disputes in baseball. Both sides present their best offers and the arbitrator picks one or the other. This process encourages both sides to present proposals that are most likely to be picked, rather than including provisions which have no chance being accepted. However, arbitration in professional baseball is mutually agreed to by contract; this proposal would use the force of federal law to require businesses to submit to government arbitration. Even if forced arbitration is imposed only when there appears to be “bad-faith bargaining” by an employer, it’s expected that the new National Labor Relations Board will side with the unions in finding such “bad faith” in order to trigger forced arbitration of first contracts. This undermines the fundamental concept of collective bargaining and the ability of employers and employees to have a hand in shaping the contract under which they will operate.

Another provision being talked about would create a two-sided card whereby workers could express a preference to have a union either through the card check process or by secret ballot election. This approach assumes that the employee wants a union-it will disenfranchise employees who do not want a union at all. It would also provide just as much opportunity for union organizers to pressure employees into signing cards as the currently proposed card check organizing scheme, and union organizers could ignore those cards calling for a secret ballot until they got the requisite number to be recognized through the card check process.

Here is the bottom line: unions and their congressional allies are trying to cobble together an alternative to the Card Check bill that could get past the 60-vote hurdle in the Senate - but so far, the proposals on the table are just as harmful to workers and employers. While we do not know when a new bill will be introduced, there are reports it could happen in the coming weeks. Now is the ideal time to make sure your Senators know of your strong opposition to so-called “compromise” proposals such as these. With our economy hanging in the balance, now is not the time to compromise on workers’ rights or jobs.

Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) on Card Check: “When senator Specter says he won’t support Card Check as presently constituted, that means he probably will. Pennsylvania is the only state in the nation with a non public employee increase in unionized workers. So it’s a tough issue for him in a tough state.”

Hatch: “No compromise on EFCA is acceptable. I think the old saying is true that elections have consequences but,  I have a tough time believing that the American people believe that in supporting President Obama they were agreeing to forced unionization.”

The pieces on the card check game board continue to move around with Congressman King wavering in his support and Senator Specter indicating he may be open to a compromise (see below from the National Journal).

Also, check out this advertisement opposing card check that appeared in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (on the lower right hand side of the webpage; it may take a few seconds to load).

SPECTER MIGHT BE OPEN TO CARD-CHECK COMPROMISE

Vice President Biden said Wednesday he believes Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen
Specter would have “an open mind” about voting for a bill that makes it
easier to form unions if a compromise emerges.

Specter, who became a Democrat this week, had disappointed labor leaders
last month when, as a Republican senator, he said he would not support the
bill known as card check in its current form. But he left the door open to
supporting other labor reforms.

Biden told regional reporters in a telephone conference that he has not
spoken with Specter about his position on the bill. “But knowing Arlen, I
believe Arlen will probably have an open mind if there’s a compromise
offered,” Biden said.

Two items of interest to start the week:

1. An item which appeared Late Friday in the Washington Post; I found the blog comments instructive, particularly the comments related to an organizing effort underway in Indiana and the role Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) could play in that effort.

Washington Post: House of Labor

Labor Advocate to Join Biden’s Middle Class Task Force

2. An article out of the Utica Observer-Dispatch: http://www.uticaod.com/business/x360589615/Area-unions-back-employee-choice-bill “> where both congressman Arcuri’s comments and the blog reaction to the article are instructive..

As we’ve often discussed, there are many ways to keep our agenda on target when it comes to legislation. Tuesday, unions and others will commemorate ‘workers memorial day’ and several house hearings are calendared on workers’ rights issues.

All of this is to say, the fight continues and now is not the time to let up! Those of us traveling to Washington DC in mid-may will be bringing up EFCA in our member meetings but use the opportunities you have in your districts to ensure your members are informed and making their views known as well.

For information on how you can take part in the “New York Day” in Washington, May 11 - 13, 2009, click here.