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Tuesday, April 28, 2009 | 2 a.m.
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President Barack Obama’s decision to tap three veterans of the labor movement for crucial posts signals a strong, if expected, shift from the Bush administration’s tilt toward business on labor issues.
Obama named Mary Beth Maxwell, a founder of the card-check-advocacy group American Rights at Work, as a senior adviser at the Labor Department. Maxwell’s appoint-
ment is a boost for the Employee Free Choice Act, the so-called card-check bill that would make it easier for workers to form unions. Maxwell will work with the White House Task Force on Middle Class Working Families.
Obama also nominated two veteran labor lawyers to the National Labor Relations Board. The five-member panel has been operating with just two members since late 2007, amassing a backlog of cases of disputes between workers and management.
Nominee Craig Becker is currently associate general counsel for the Service Employees International Union and the AFL-CIO, and a longtime law professor. Mark Pearce is a career labor lawyer in private practice.
If confirmed by the Senate, they will join Wilma Liebman, whom Obama tapped as chairman in January, as Democratic appointees to the panel. The panel has one Republican appointee and one vacancy.
Labor advocates see a pendulum swing from the Bush administration.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said Becker and Pearce “understand the importance of workers’ rights, collective bargaining and the need to restore balance to the National Labor Relations Board.”
Josh Goldstein, spokesman for American Rights at Work, said Maxwell’s appointment is “a great success for the campaign to have someone like her at the highest level.”
The Employee Free Choice Act remains one of the most divisive issues in Washington. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said recently he still expects a vote this year.
The bill would allow workers to form unions if the majority of employees sign a card of support rather than voting by secret ballot.
Unions say the law is needed because management drags out the election process and intimidates workers. Business says workers will be intimidated without the privacy of a mandatory secret ballot. (Under the proposed law, secret ballots could st ill be used if workers decide they prefer that method.)
The National Labor Relations Board has been slow to resolve organizing disputes.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Glenn Spencer said the new board could have great influence — perhaps even reducing the need for the card-check bill.
“With the new chairman and these board members, you’ll see some changes in this policy that I think the unions will be happy with,” Spencer said.
But Patrick Szmanski, general counsel at the Change to Win union, said the Employee Free Choice Act is still needed to change the underlying labor law to prevent delays and management actions now considered legal.
Lets see signing a card in front of others (Browns Shirts) or voting by secret ballot. One way is how Adolf Hitler got elected, And The other way is the American way. YES SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT, I MYSELF PREFER THE AMERICA WAY BUT THATS JUST ME. PS. CARD CHECK IS FOR LOSERS.
Actually, PowerPlay, Hitler was elected by elections using a secret ballot. And voting in early America was by open declaration. So there goes those arguments.
If your in business time to get out. The socialist have taken or about to take over everything. GOD HELP US ALL
Did YOU Get The Memo on EFCA?
http://digg.com/d1pok8
TO: All Journalists
FROM: Union Activists and Bloggers
Re: The Employee Free Choice Act
The bill is far from dead. This is just the beginning of Labor reform and Worker Rights So you better keep an eye on it.
Just today Obama signaled a big shift in labor policy by tapping three veterans of the labor movement for crucial posts within the Department of Labor and the National Labor Relations Board.
Mary Beth Maxwell a founder of the EFCA-advocacy group American Rights at Work, as a senior adviser at the Labor Department and Craig Becker currently associate general counsel for the Service Employees International Union and the AFL-CIO, and a longtime law professor and Mark Pearce labor lawyer nominated to the National Labor Relations Board.
If you've got any questions, you can try to contact us through our newspaper blogs, twitter, think tanks or local grassroots networks, YOU can count on us to get back to you. Were NOT Going Away!
http://efcanow.blogspot.com/
Maxwell, New NLRB Appointments: Change We Can Believe In
http://digg.com/d1pooA
unions, the best thing that happened to america. look at GM, Chrysler and Ford, lol.
If republicans got there way we would all stand in front of Home depot and beg for work. No healthcare and no laws to get in the way.
Why tax the rich? Just give them the treasury, thats what republicans want.
These appointments are a welcome balance against the deep pockets of the corporate and financial elite. Until lately, the Labor Department should have been named the "Anti-Labor Dept." as they have been continuously and methodically chipping away at the rights of Employees as well as their wages, security and benefits. These appointments will be a big help in getting the truth out in the face of the deceptive and ongoing $200 million media campaign being pushed by big business to defeat the "Employee Free Choice Act". The "Employee Free Choice Act" DOES NOT TAKE AWAY AN EMPLOYEES RIGHT TO A SECRET BALLOT VOTE! If you take the time to read the text of the "Employee Free Choice Act" and the National Labor Relations Act as it stands today, you will find that the Employees right to demand an election will remain intact and unaffected by the passage of the "Employee Free Choice Act". In fact, after EFCA it only takes 30% of the Employees to request a secret ballot election AND they can request it, before, during or even after the union is recognized. Another bit of false information being pushed in the media is by business is that Employees will be bullied by Unions during an organizing campaign. Again if you do some research you would find that; In the first 70 years of the National Labor Relations Act, there were only 42 cases of fraud or coercion by Unions in the submittal of authorization cards. By contrast, there were 29,000 documented cases of intimidation or coercion by employers IN 2007 ALONE!!! If you think that they are spending $200 for your benefit, you may want to take a closer look at the big picture here. Think about it. If they can continue to control us as employees......they can also continue control us as citizens, stewards of our own government. It is about power, control and greed.
Joseph Pijanowski
IAM Local 126
j1pij@aol.com
hey nick, nobody in this county is entitled to health care it is a benefit of employment....we already pay millions for health care for lifetime welfare cases and illegals.....please dont blame republicans for wanting people to work for what they get instead of government socail programs from the socialist....err I mean democratic party
Healthcare is NOT a benfit of employment. Employers should not have to provide costly care to employees.
Republicans want healthcare for the rich only.
Good way to keep us all slaves
GREGORY BROWN, NOT REALLY, The 1932 german national elections were rigged in favor of the nazi party. the voting booths had 6 inch wide gaps on both sides so that the ( brown shirts ) could see what you were doing, they were the poll workers because at the time the nazis had the only political party that was unified and held more power then the other 3 to 4 major german political partys combined, these guys were walking around the polling stations, and voting booths carrying ax handles nobody else was aloud in the place to help monitored the election. Also you say that early America voting was by open declaration well it was. voting was done by white males over the age of 21 and they were landowners as well as Christians. your first point is wrong and your second point is weak.
"Powerplay" sucker punched "gregory brown".
Never saw the 3 inch stroke punch ala Larry Holmes.