LABOR:

Past friends of card check still weighing bill

Leila Navidi

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., right, has not yet signed on to the Employee Free Choice Act. “I get a lot of business support, and I need to let them know why I’m going to sign on to it at the appropriate time, and I’m not there yet,” she said.

By Lisa Mascaro (contact)

Tuesday, March 3, 2009 | 2 a.m.

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The Early Line

Congresswoman Shelley Berkley

Washington — Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley would seem to be a reliable vote for labor’s top issue in Congress — a bill that would make it easier for workers to organize under the card check system used at most of the unionized casinos on the Strip.

Berkley has seen card check as it is applied in Las Vegas and she signed on in 2007 as an original co-sponsor of the bill that passed in the House. But as the debate over the Employee Free Choice Act heats up as labor’s top priority, Berkley has yet to offer her support.

Why?

“That’s a good question,” Berkley said recently in discussing a bill vigorously opposed by business. “I’m not comfortable enough to sign on to it yet. I suspect that I will. I’m just not there yet.”

The Employee Free Choice Act would provide perhaps the biggest shake-up of the labor landscape in decades, allowing employees to substantially change the way they decide on union representation.

The bill would allow workers in each workplace to decide how they will express a preference for or against a union. Workers could decide to require a secret ballot, or to have employees simply sign a card of support, reverting to a method used before Congress changed the law six decades ago to require secret ballots.

Business groups say the secret ballot is the fairest way for workers to decide and argue that the card check system allows union advocates to exert pressure on workers to organize.

Labor argues that the secret ballot enables management to manipulate the system, dragging out the election process and using the time to intimidate workers.

The same legislation died in Congress two years ago, with Democrats holding narrower advantages in Congress and Republican President George W. Bush in the White House. But now, with expanded Democratic majorities and Barack Obama as president, the legislation has its best chance yet of becoming law.

Opponents of the bill, however, say Democrats are not in full agreement this time because the bill actually has a chance of passing, which means their votes could make a difference.

“When it stands a real chance of becoming law, you have to think about it again,” one Senate Republican aide said.

Democratic Rep. Dina Titus, who supported card check on the campaign trail in Henderson, has also not yet signed her name to the legislation.

Today, Berkley and Titus will be visited by members of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, who are lobbying on the Hill this week. Chamber spokeswoman Cara Roberts calls the Employee Free Choice Act “probably the most dangerous legislation for business that’s out there.”

“I think we’ll have some meaningful conversations,” Roberts said. “Hopefully get the message across that this is a jobs killer.”

The issue is shaping up as an enormous controversy. Both sides are pouring tens of millions of dollars into lobbying.

A pro-card check group ran a full-page ad last week in The Washington Post with prominent economists supporting the bill, including Nobel laureates.

Republican opponents in Congress introduced an alternative bill last week to uphold secret ballot elections.

Berkley said she is waiting because she wants to take time to listen to her supporters on both sides of the issue. “I get a lot of business support, and I need to let them know why I’m going to sign on to it at the appropriate time, and I’m just not there yet,” Berkley said.

Titus spokesman Andrew Stoddard said the congresswoman supports the concept of the bill, but “feels it’s her responsibility to hear from all stakeholders involved in the debate before making a decision.

“This is an important issue and there are strong feelings on both sides,” he said.

Berkley compared the debate to the battle two years ago over raising the minimum wage — an idea business initially opposed but eventually supported after business tax breaks were added. She’s hopeful the business community will similarly find a way to improve this bill to its liking.

She said that at the moment, the argument is: “If you don’t support this, the world is going to come to an end. If you do support this, the world is going to come to an end.

“The world is not going to come to an end,” she said. “But let’s figure out how we make this work for everybody. We’re not there yet.”

Discussion: 2 comments so far…

By EFCANOW

3/3/09 at 12:30 p.m.

Suggest removal

The Employee Free Choice Act would not--repeat after me--would not, take away the secret ballot National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election process if workers seeking to form a union wanted to use it.

The Employee Free Choice would ensure workers made the decision of whether to select a union via majority sign-up (card-check) or via ballot process. Choice is good.

That's one reason why we called it Employee Free Choice--because it would enable employees, not management, to make the decision of how to form a union.

_________________________________

The Employee Free Choice Act vs FEAR, Intimidation. Corruption & Bribery by Employers : Is This What You Call a Fair Election?

The Employee Free Choice Act Does NOT Eliminate Secret Ballot Elections it Eliminates the EMPLOYERS opportunity to conduct an Anti-Union Campaign built on FEAR Intimidation Corruption and Bribery against its own employees.

http://efcanow.blogspot.com/2009_02_01_a...

________________________

Employer FEAR and Intimidation Tactics are Common in Union Elections. This is just one More Reason Why We Need The Employee Free Choice Act.

Imagine An Employer Firing a Worker for Trying to Organizing A Union - EFCA Now!

Union: Man Fired For Organizing Kenilworth Care Workers

By GARY PINNELL
Highlands Today

Published: March 1, 2009

SEBRING - Stanley Massaline has spent his adult life - 29 years - cooking in the cafeteria for the Kenilworth Care & Rehabilitation Center. But two weeks ago, he was terminated.

Massaline was told he was laid off. But his United Food & Commercial Workers Union representative, Glenn Harris, says Massaline was fired for organizing the rest of the Kenilworth Care workers.

http://efcanow.blogspot.com/2009/03/imag...

______________________

A case study on the Need for the Employee Free Choice Act - Three (3) Years After Joining A Union Still NO Contract BUT...

Fed Board to Ask Court for Rare Order on Fremont-Rideout to Seek Fair Pact With RNs

http://efcaunionbustingclub.blogspot.com...

______________________________________

The Union Busting Strategy Behind the EFCA EXPOSED!

http://efcanow.blogspot.com/2009/03/is-s...

__________________________

How Does DeMint-Enzi and Senator from Tennessee, Bob Corker Plan on Defeating The Employee Free Choice Act? Keep Spreading The LIES!

http://efcaunionbustingclub.blogspot.com...

________________

For more information on Employer Intimidation and Union-Busting FEAR Tactics Press Below

http://efcanow.blogspot.com/2009/02/just...
By Mark

3/5/09 at 11:02 a.m.

Suggest removal

EFCANOW is continuing to spread the union canard that Card Check would not take away the secret ballot. This person probably says "I always wear cowboy boots," and "That thing on my face is just a cold sore," too. Some truth, lots of fiction.

The 2007 EFCA bill specified that if 50%+1 signed authorization cards, there was no election. The 50%-1 had no opportunity to discuss this with the others. The employer who supplied the capital investment and management skill to start the business and offer jobs to all of these workers has no opportunity to discuss it with them. There is NO choice.

The only grain of truth to what this person said is that if the union organizers are only able to persuade between 30% and 50-1 to sign cards after visiting them in the parking lot... at an adult beverage & entertainment facility, in the grocery store or at their child's playground... and if those flat tires, cracked windows and late night phone calls didn't work... and they are so determined to proceed, they may then petition the NLRB for an election - which is the law now.

The employer has no opportunity once 50+1 are signed to tell its workers...

-how uncompetitive the company might become,

-how the unfunded liability for the union pension plan may bankrupt the business,

-how the union uses their money to support political candidates that may not be supported by the employee,

-how the Department of Labor has documented over 200 cases of union fraud and embezzlement in 2008 (nearly one for every business day of the year),

-how a union employee may be fined by the union for quitting and going to work for a merit employer,

-how all employees will be required to join and pay dues to the union if the business in not in a right-to-work state,

-how any discussion about working conditions, time off, job assignments and lay-offs will only take place through contract agreement and only through a shop steward,

-or how the (current) law says it is their decision to join the union or not and it will be made in an enclosed booth in secret so that no one - not their boss, not their co-worker, not their spouse or the union organizer - will know what their decision will be.

Unions won't tell you that unions win an average of 60% of all secret ballot election votes.

Unions also will tell you that their declining membership numbers are due to how sophisticated employers have become in fighting union organizing. They won't tell you that unions win an average of 60% of all secret ballot election votes.

They will also tell you about how many workers are fired for union activity, but not that employers may be fined if found guilty by the NLRB for doing so as it is against the law. If you want to know the "rest of the story" visit www.unionfacts.com or www.myprivateballot.com. Then tell Rep. Berkley to oppose Card Check. Like everyone in Congress she was elected by voters casting secret ballots.

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