Card Check, Unions, and History Lessons
Friday, December 11th, 2009 by AdminA couple items offer a look at card check and the employee Free Choice Act in historical perspective.
First, Paul Moreno, chair of constitutional chair at Hillsdale College writes that the party in power has a history of job-killing policies and points directly to EFCA:
Democrats want to force employers to bargain with unions chosen by a minority of their workers by altering National Mediation Board rules. And they are trying to make it easier for union organizers to win elections by “card-check” legislation, which would also impose compulsory federal arbitration if unions cannot negotiate a contract with employers.
Meanwhile, the well-respected pollster Stuart Rothenberg looks at a lesson from political history:
Yes, we have seen this before. After the 1994 elections, GOP leaders interpreted the results as an invitation – even a demand by most Americans – to change the country fundamentally by cutting government.
Of course, that wasn’t the case any more than last year’s presidential and Congressional elections were a mandate for a public insurance option in health care reform or a cap-and-trade bill or the enactment of the Employee Free Choice Act.
We’d warn that those who do not pay attention to history are doomed to repeat it, but that seems to be precisely the goal of EFCA’s proponents.
