Archive for February, 2010
Card Check: Inconsistency
LaborUnionReport.com looks at comments by Big Labor and their biggest supporter in the Senate, Sen. Tom Harkin and says someone’s got some splainin to do:
As we scan through all of the posts, comments and critiques surrounding
union bosses’President Obama’s controversial nominee to the National Labor Relations Board, the SEIU’s Craig Becker, we could not help but notice some BIG inconsistencies in the comments made by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and the AFL-CIO’s mouthpiece Stewart Acuff.The inconsistencies are over whether or not Craig Becker will can push to use his (possible) position on the NLRB to push for provisions contained in the all-but-dead Employee Free Choice Act.
The SEIU has said that Becker’s nomination is labor’s highest priority now, which was largely explained by a statement by Acuff that Becker could accomplish through the NLRB what labor could not achieve legislatively: namely, card check.
But then there’s this quote from Sen. Harkin:
As you are all aware, I
“This is the highest priority for organized labor
Our friends at Shopfloor.org report that the powerful, though highly troubled, SEIU has sent an email to Capitol Hill threatening informing them that the nomination of Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board
“AFL-CIO Mouthpiece Admits Big Labor’s Strategy is to Use NLRB to Push Americans into Unions”
We have documented the way in which NLRB nominee Craig Becker’s testimony has failed to assuage the concerns that the former SEIU attorney’s anti-employer views would impair his ability to function in his potential new role.
But there’s also the concern that his mild-mannered answers — which could have left many thinking he has changed his view that he could use the NLRB to replace the current secret-ballot system with card check — didn’t tell the whole story.
LaborUnionReport.com points out this claim by AFL-CIO boss Richard Trumka organizing boss Stewart Acuff on using the NLRB to pass card check when legislators would not:
It [sic] we aren’t able to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, we will work with President Obama and Vice President Biden and their appointees to the National Labor Relations Board to change the rules governing forming a union through administrative action to once again allow workers in America access to one of the most basic freedoms in a democracy–the freedom of speech and assembly and association so that workers can build the collective power to challenge the Financial Elite and Get America Back to Work. [Emphasis added.]
Hmm. Certainly worth keeping in mind as Senators send his nomination one more important step into the process Thursday morning.
“How will ‘card check’ create and sustain jobs?”
It won’t, but that’s the very reasonable question from Rep. John Kline — readers of this blog will remember him well.
The setting for the question came at a House hearing at which Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis testified about her ongoing work. The Wall Street Journal had the Kline recap:
Meanwhile, Rep. John Kline (R., Minn.), the senior Republican on the House Education Committee, applauded the Obama administration for taking action to ease unemployment numbers, but criticized the controversial Employee Free Choice Act, which could make it easier for workers to join unions.
“I cannot help but question many of [the president's] proposed policies that seem to run contrary to the goal of job creation and economic certainty,” Mr. Kline said. He later added, “The question remains: how will ‘card check’ create and sustain jobs?”
Those who oppose EFCA have said the legislation could likely stump job growth, business activity and investments.
The truth, of course, is that EFCA will kill jobs and once again assault the free enterprise system. So long as jobs remain high on the administration’s agenda, EFCA should be at the bottom.
Come to think of it, EFCA should always be at the bottom of the agenda. That should simplify things nicely.
Card Check King’s Answers “Not Good Enough”
Yesterday, SEIU attorney Craig Becker went before a Senate hearing aimed at investigating his radical anti-employer, anti-employee-rights views. (Here’s his prepared statement; informed observers may chuckle at his description of the hallowed National Labor Relations Board since his employer spent years attacking it and continues to skirt it religiously.)
The concerns of many are captured by the Wall Street Journal:
Sen. Johnny Isakson (R., Ga.) expressed concern that Becker’s writings “have indicated a belief that the NLRB has the power to make some of the dramatic changes in the card-check bill.” The so-called card-check legislation, supported by Obama and Democrats in Congress, would allow unions to bypass secret-ballot elections and instead organize in workplaces by collecting signed cards from workers.
Sen. John McCain has been leading the fight against letting Becker scoot into the NLRB seat without a hearing on his troubling views. McCain asked Becker about whether he would recuse himself from all cases before the board involving SEIU. The recap from The Hill:
Becker replied,
Voters Say: Job One Is To Scrap Card Check
Check here to see a history of polls showing every angle of public dissatisfaction with the Employee Free Choice Act, its anti-democratic card check provision, and its imposition of government arbitrators into private negotiations that could see employees deprived of the right to vote on contract terms.
The latest comes courtesy of our colleagues at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and their poll shows:
- In the poll, 61% of respondents said that EFCA would cause more companies to expand abroad as opposed to creating jobs in America.
- Sixty five percent also said that EFCA should not be attached to a “jobs bill,” but instead be considered separately.
- More than half (54%) of voters surveyed said they would be more likely to oppose a generic candidate who voted in favor of EFCA in 2010.
More info here.
