Posts Tagged ‘Compromise’
Continuing Reaction To Rumors of Card Check’s Demise
The rumors may be overstated, or maybe not. Today, the New York Times is reporting that the “card check” provision of the Employee Free Choice Act will be dropped from consideration. Here are some more thoughts on the matter:
- Marc Ambinder says “card check is as good as dead”: “A canvass of labor leaders and strategists this morning confirms the diagnosis reached by the New York Times: there is not enough support in the Senate to change federal law to allow ‘card check’ elections anytime soon. This is the first time since the start of the fight that labor leaders are conceding in private what has seemed to be apparent in public for a long while.”
- Liz Wolgemuth says Employee Free Choice Without Card Check: “Card Check Lite?”: “Other possible revisions to the bill include granting union organizers access onto business property–a revision the chamber would oppose. Perhaps the group’s biggest beef is that the bill retains a provision that would speed up the often lengthy contract negotiations by allowing either employers or unions to request federal mediators if agreement hasn’t been reached within 90 days of bargaining. If the mediators don’t succeed, government-appointed arbitrators would be brought in to decide the contracts. The chamber has argued that arbitrators could force employers into contracts that would threaten their financial positions.”
- Over at the Cato Institute they’re reminding us
The Bell Tolls For Card Check
The New York Times reports:
A half-dozen senators friendly to labor have decided to drop a central provision of a bill that would have made it easier to organize workers.
The so-called card-check provision
Sen. Thune: There Can Be No Compromise On Card Check, Binding Arbitration
Helpful, hopeful words from Sen. John Thune:
Card Check: Only Mostly Dead
It just so happens that your friend here is only MOSTLY dead. There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. — The Princess Bride
Senator Al Franken has been sworn in, giving Democrats 60 seats in the upper chamber. Senator Franken’s first legislative act was to sign on as a co-sponsor to the seriously unfunny Employee Free Choice, for which the punchline will be lost jobs and fewer rights in the workplace.
Even so, Matthew Cooper at the Atlantic’s blog argues EFCA is still stuck:
But the problem that’s plagued the bill for months still remains: 60 Democrats don’t support it and the Republicans are determined to filibuster the measure, which has united the business community like nothing else in recent memory.
… now, anything that passes is likely to involve compromise that will weaken the impact of the bill further. One labor source tells me that “something” is likely to pass this year but it won’t be the original measure that business seems to be able to kill despite the Democrats having 60 votes.
Cooper notes that he has argued in favor of the bill because it seems to him a “modest” bill. Perhaps, but it may be like seemingly innocuous iocane powder — odorless, tasteless, dissolves instantly in liquid, but among the deadlier policy poisons known to man.
But, as noted above, EFCA is not completely dead. In fact, Senator John Thune yesterday correctly described card check as “undead”:
Sen. John Thune (R-SD) says the
Card Check One Way Of Saving The Dinosaurs
Columnist Kevin Hassett has an interesting take on national policy efforts by the Obama administration, which the writer dubs “saving the dinosaurs.” Not surprisingly, one of the policies Hassett points to is card check:
The actions of Obama and other Democrats speak volumes. They are supporting so-called card-check legislation, which would make it easier for unions to organize workplaces. And a provision in the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill passed recently by the House appears to have been specifically designed to allow the Teamsters union to organize FedEx Corp.
Of course, there are plenty of Democrats who are wary of the Employee Free Choice Act — it’s why, even with 60 Democrats in the Senate, it appears there is little appetite at this moment for the ugly fight over stripping private ballots and killing hundreds of thousands of jobs.
At the same time, it’s worth noting that those 60 votes are causing internal pressure for Senate Democratic leadership, which may affect the timetable for EFCA or “EFCA Lite” discussions. According to
“Post Card Check” Is Just As Bad
Brian Worth, chairman of the ABC-affiliated Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, has a letter to the editor of the Oregonian newspaper today highlighting the key concerns with a “card check lite” scheme floated in would-be compromises.
He writes:
The most important distinction is that there’s no ballot involved in the mail-in card proposal. It merely substitutes the discredited card check ruse with a “postcard check” — a new and equally flawed variation. The postcard check proposal increases the power of the professional union organizer, eviscerates secret ballot elections and further weakens workers’ privacy rights.
Like regular card check, mail-in cards do not provide the guaranteed security and privacy of a voting booth, thus inviting fraud, intimidation and coercion with more visits to workers’ homes by union organizers.
This latest attempt to fix what is wrong with the Employee Free Choice Act opens the door to abuse through ACORN-style campaigning that is prone to fraud and increases the possibility of worker intimidation and coercion. As National Labor Relations Board career staff noted, mail-in cards increase the “potential for interference by any party.”
You can’t fix card check by simply adding postage and this alternative further expands the attack on worker privacy from the workplace to the home.
Amen.
