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Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Sun Archives
- Card check issue stalls panel’s vote on nominee (1-23-2009)
- Left relieved by Obama’s words on card check (1-17-2009)
- Mum about card check, a key issue for labor (1-10-2009)
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the Senate will likely turn its attention this summer to the Employee Free Choice Act — the union organizing bill being watched in Las Vegas and across the nation.
Standing beside fair-pay advocate Lilly Ledbetter late last week after the Senate passed landmark legislation named in her honor, Reid made clear that the wage discrimination bill was not the last on the labor agenda.
The union organizing bill, sometimes called card check, is an “important piece of legislation,” he said. “We’re going to get to that,” Reid said. “We’re hoping to get to it sometime this summer.”
The Senate will be where the action is on the Employee Free Choice Act. The bill passed the House in 2007, but died on a near-party line vote after only one Republican crossed over to support it in the Senate. With an expanded Democratic majority under Reid, it could be closer to passage.
The bill would make it easier for unions to organize and would likely bring union representation to workers at the remaining casinos on the Strip still without it.
The legislation would allow workers interested in forming a union to simply sign a card, returning to a system that had been in place for decades, until business persuaded Congress to require secret-ballot elections.
The secret ballots could still be used, but the new bill would provide the option of organizing with the sign-up cards. Unions say management often drags out the elections, using the time to pressure workers to vote no.
But business is mounting a fierce campaign to preserve the secret ballot.
The Employee Free Choice Act is the top issue for both the business and labor communities in Washington. Each side plans to spend $10 million on ads and other campaign efforts.
Reid’s announcement of a possible summer vote is timely.
Unions had initially pressed President Barack Obama to make the bill an early part of his 100-days agenda. Union organizing had been key to his reelection, and one branch of the labor community mounted a campaign for follow-through on campaign promises.
Yet corralling the votes necessary for passage in the Senate is also critical.
Even though Democrats have expanded their majority to just one or two votes shy of the 60 needed to defeat a filibuster blocking the bill, support among senators is not a given. Some Democratic senators who initially voted in favor have since expressed reservations about the bill.
The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace Spreads MORE LIES Again about the Employee Free Choice Act
The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace an organization, it should be noted, that opposes the Employee Free Choice Act has released a McLaughlin & Associates poll showing opposition to card check legislation among union households. The poll also included a larger sample of voters. Its findings, according to a statement:
Three out of four voters (74%) oppose the "The Employee Free Choice Act". Union households also strongly oppose the Employee Free Choice Act, 74% oppose to only 20% support.
When given a more detailed description of the Employee Free Choice Act, nearly 9 out of 10 voters, 86%, feel the process should remain private and only 8% feel it should be public information. Again, even union workers feel strongly that the process should be kept private, as 88% said private and only 8% said public.
Four out of five voters, or 82%, favor having a federally supervised election as a means to "protect the individual rights of workers". The voters clearly see this as a basic right, especially given that only 11% of voters feel the card check would be the best way to protect the individual rights of workers. Support increases to 85% among union households.
The majority (52% to 26%) of American voters believe that the Employee Free Choice Act is not good for job creation. Even among union households, the plurality (48%) believes that the Employee Free Choice Act will cost America jobs.
In the current economic climate, 52% of voters are particularly opposed to any measure that would risk jobs or job growth.
Further exemplifying the electorates' distaste for the Employee Free Choice Act, 71% agreed that this legislation would be "unwise" and "risky". In today's economic climate, the electorate has little confidence in the federal government's ability to make such major business decisions.
Union busting is a field populated by bullies and built on deceit. A campaign against a union is an assault on individuals and a war on truth. As such, it is a war without honor. The only way to bust a union is to lie, distort, manipulate, threaten, and always, always attack.
Martin Jay Levitt, 1993, Confessions of a Union Buster
For More Information on EFCA please visit our website and blog
http://www.employeefreechoiceactnow.org
http://efcanow.blogspot.com/
http://www.FreeChoiceActNow.Org
http://www.LaborUnionResources.Org
http://www.spfpa.org/UnionBusterPagemake...
Yup - "Do nothing" "14% Congressional Approval Rating" Boss Reid is full of promises (as long as a camera is there).
And he has the gall to assume responsibility for the Ledbetter bill like HE did it all?? What a phoney.....
Harry Reid is running for his seat in 2010 and Rory Reid is running for Governor.
Harry Reid is not liked for his positions in Nevada. Wow 14% Congressional Approval Rating and Reid is the boss.
The Reids need the Millions of dollars that the Union bosses will throw their way.
The Reids need the Union enforcers to politically kneecap who ever the Republicans put against them.
The Reids have only card check and Yucca mountain to run on.
Harry Reid's ideas are as empty of content as the UNLV Harry Reid Research and Technology Park at Durango and Sunset.
What were Senate Minority Leader Reid's and Dodd's role in preventing regulation of Fannie and Freddie purchase of subprime mortgages in 2005?
Why did Democrats not support the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190?
What was Senate Majority Leader Reid and Democrats doing while the economy went into a depression from 2006 to 2008?
Why was no action taken for underwater homeowner in the June 9, 2008, Federal Housing Finance Regulatory Reform Act of 2008?
Why is Chris Dodd still Harry's chairmen on the Senate banking committee.
future 2012, excellent post. Reid promises the world and delivers next to nothing. Put a camera in his face watch him promise and then defend his positions, crazy.
This guy acts like the low approval ratings have nothing to do with him and only affect other members of congress, Insane.
Now we only have to show his voting record for the sham it is and his leadership record for the shipwreck it is to his fervent Dem/Mormon base and we can finally hit the eject button.
It is amazing that EFCANOW labels anyone who is against the card-check bill as a "Bully".
I worked in a union shop for 3 years, and the only bullies I had to deal with were the shop steward and union business agents.
It was the worst 3 years of my 25 year working life.
I can't image what it would be like if I ran into a bunch of teamster organizers and I didn't agree to sign the the card.
EFCANOW, weren't you supposed to stop drinking before you posted again?
Pass the free choice bill and watch thousands of small businesses fail.
It's really hard to see how labor has any leverage at all right now. How can anyone think that given almost 10% unemployment rates that people won't cross a picket line for a job? Any company that has employees go union should strongly consider a lock-out.
And as always, the only card-check that is really needed is one for green cards.
boftx, I agree, in 1983 or 84 the Culinary Union went on strike here in Las Vegas, like a good union member I walked the picket line for three weeks. On week four a funny thing happened, I looked at my bills and realized I needed to get a job. I was real good at what I did so I crossed the line, asked management for my job back and went on working there for another thirteen years, no problems.
If unions called for a strike in any industry today it would be a cattle call for any and everybody who needed a job or was struggling to put food on the table.
And I agree also that the only card check needed is for green cards.