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Sunday, July 27, 2008 | 2 a.m.
Sen. John Ensign may have found the perfect tool for his almost Herculean task of defending Senate Republicans in November: unions — or, more accurately, fear of them.
Ensign, Nevada’s junior senator and chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, has been using Big Labor’s top legislative priority, a bill that would make it easier for workers to organize, as a rallying point in a fight whose objective, he concedes, is to minimize Republican losses.
The bill, dubbed the Employee Free Choice Act, would allow workers to unionize a workplace through majority sign-up or “card check” instead of putting the issue to a secret-ballot vote. It would also stiffen penalties for employers who commit unfair labor practices during an organizing drive and impose binding arbitration in bargaining cases in which the sides cannot agree.
The legislation would likely usher in the largest unionization drive since the passage of the National Labor Relations Act in 1935.
“It’s our No. 1 issue to raise money on,” Ensign said last week. “It scares anybody who’s in business to death.”
Indeed, Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson told The Wall Street Journal the union-backed bill was “one of the two fundamental threats to society.” (The other, he said, was radical Islam.)
Ensign has plenty of help. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Freedom’s Watch, an independent group financed in large part by Adelson, among others, have launched multimillion-dollar offensives against the card check legislation, calling it “un-American,” something that, as one chamber official put it, would “Europeanize the American workforce.”
Opponents are casting the bill as an attempt by labor and its Democratic allies to strip workers of the right to a secret ballot. Card check, they say, would allow organizers to intimidate workers into signing union cards and “turn back the clock on our economy.”
“The fact that Democrats would be willing to take (secret ballots) away from workers and call it free choice, we just want Americans to see how far left the Democratic Party has come,” said Sen. Jim DeMint, a South Carolina Republican. “This is a good, simple example for people to see. Some of the things like the Fannie Mae bailout are so complex. Secret ballot, people understand.”
Maybe not.
The Chamber of Commerce points to a national poll it conducted showing 85 percent of voters oppose “the elimination of secret ballots in union elections.” But such polls rarely provide the context of a labor-management campaign, where a worker’s livelihood can literally be on the line.
Unions complain the election process favors employers because they can campaign against the union and, assisted by high-priced “union avoidance” consultants, use mandatory informational meetings, among other tools, to threaten and intimidate workers.
Because labor law prescribes minimal penalties for employer violations, labor experts say, management is all but encouraged to identify union sympathizers, often firing them to snuff out the momentum of an organizing drive well before the matter is put to a vote. Even when workers vote and win, employers can challenge the result or bargain to an impasse with the union. Either way, appeals are often bogged down for years in a Byzantine legal process.
For those reasons, the 60,000-strong Culinary Union in Las Vegas has abandoned elections, opting instead to negotiate voluntary card check agreements with the major casino companies, including the one once run by Ensign’s father, Mandalay Resort Group. The proposed bill would require that employers recognize unions under that kind of organizing. (Workers would still have the option of a secret ballot.)
Labor has public support, but although the card check legislation passed overwhelmingly in the House last year, it went down in the Senate, 51-48, largely along party lines. Democrats need 60 votes to advance the measure in that body, which means its prospects hinge on the Nov. 4 election.
And that’s why John Ensign is beating the anti-union drum as loudly as he can.
Sun Washington correspondent Lisa Mascaro contributed to this story.
Ensign, The biggest disappointment in Washington.A complete failure.When he is not lying he is playing golf.
Reid is a success?
He is one of the most powerful politicans in DC.
Yet, Nevada is on the bottom of the list of getting Federal dollars for k-12 education. New Mexico gets twice of what Nevada gets.
Yucca is still alive.
What exactly has he done for Nevada?
Does he have time for that? He meets almost everyday with MoveOn.org.
Do you have any evidence to backup your claim that Reid meets with MoveOn "almost everyday," Nance?
You've written that here frequently but I've yet to see the claim backed up with any facts.
"Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy last year started holding conference calls in which they allow liberal bloggers to air complaints and offer suggestions on issues"
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/...
"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) abruptly reversed plans to compromise over Iraq legislation with Republicans after a meeting in New York where antiwar leaders pressured him to be more aggressive in ending the war. "
A key member at the meeting was moveon.org leader.
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?u...
"senior Democratic senators eagerly rearrange their schedules to meet with MoveOn"
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/02/18/Worlda...
http://pol.moveon.org/2005report/
"Fresh from a blogger conference call with Harry Reid, McJoan details the Democratic leadership plan in the Senate"
http://www.vbdems.org/?cat=6
“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid once again found himself on the defensive after calling the outgoing Joint Chiefs Chairman Peter Pace "incompetent" during a recent conference call interview with liberal bloggers”
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2...
“Every morning, representatives from a cluster of antiwar groups gather for a conference call with Democratic leadership staff members….”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/washin...
1. None of those sources support your claim that Reid meets with MoveOn.org daily, or even "almost daily."
2. "Democratic leadership staff members" are on the daily calls, not the leaders themselves, according to the stories you linked. That could include anyone from Reid's press secretary to unpaid interns. Thus, it doesn't take any time away from his day. Nor do these stories allege that Reid or a substitute is on the calls daily.
Can you tell me who, from Reid's office, is on these calls?
3. They're conference calls, not face-to-face meetings. You are mischaracterizing them as actual meetings.
4. "One of the coalition’s strengths is its diversity, bringing to together groups like MoveOn.org and organized labor on one end and former Iraq veterans in the group Votevets.org on the other, members said. But that diversity can also create some tense moments, as each of the groups have different constituencies and some of the groups are more invested in the Democratic Party than others." That's a quote from your NYT-linked piece. Thus, they're not strictly with MoveOn.org, but with a multitude of sources.
5. The VBDems.org and MSNBC stories do not explicitly name MoveOn, and the Politico story you linked does not directly associate Reid with MoveOn. In fact, you claimed that "a key member at the meeting was (a) moveon.org leader," yet that allegation isn't supported by the story you linked. The story you linked only has a statement from Eli Pariser, not any proof that Pariser, or anyone from MoveOn was at that meeting. Do you have any direct evidence for that allegation?
It seems your claim doesn't stand up to some basic analysis.
He gives groups like moveon.org more attention then he gives attention to the needs of Nevada.
Nevada is on the bottom of the list when it comes to Federal money for k-12 education.
He has done absolutely nothing about this.
Why?
Employee Free Choice is nothing of the sort. Most people sign the card to hold a vote because they think its a good idea to vote the idea up or down, not that they want to be unionized. Up to that point the union holds all the cards.
Once the decision to vote is made both parties are allowed to present their cases (usually the employer has not had an opportunity to sit down with their workers to explain why forming a union might be bad"
The secret ballot allows workers to vote yes, or no, without fear of punishment from their employer or the union. Getting rid of that will only lead to intimidation of workers, not free choice.
This bill is is just as dangerous to the employer as it is to the employee.
Any removal of a secret ballot is unfair to anyone. Paint it any way your want. There is no intimidation in a secret ballot. This allows intimidation not eliminate it. Mandatory arbitration puts the government in charge of every business in American. The Liberal Fascists want to set PC speech, nationalize health care and oil companies, and with this control every business in America. Lenin was for the people until he murdered the other leaders of his movement. Castro was the people's warrior until he enslaved them. Mao fought for the poor. When will we realize the ultra libs are far more dangerous than anyone else, they disguise their tyranny by claiming to be populist. I think Hitler was a hero in Germany when he came to power.