Unions, employers gearing up for card check battle

[Earth Bound Misfit]

Interesting article in Philly Inquirer Feb 17th. I usually get news alerts on this and other labor related topics, but somehow I missed this one.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/business/20090217_Unions__employers_gearing_up_for_card_check_battle.html

By Jane M. Von Bergen, Thomas Fitzgerald and Tom Infield

Inquirer Staff Writers

To hear Collegeville builder Gustavo Perea tell it, the prospect is frightening.

Some ambitious union organizer would take his carpenters out to a bar, buy them a couple of beers, get them to sign some union cards, and the next thing Perea knows, he'd wake up in the morning with a union shop.

That's how he imagines the future if the federal Employee Free Choice Act is passed - a proposed law that unions say would make it easier for them to bring unions into workplaces. It would allow workers to bypass traditional union-establishing elections if a majority sign cards that would authorize a union, a process known as card check.

"It's a bad law," said Perea, president of Adams-Bickel Associates Inc.

Union organizers such as Harry Arnold disagree.

"We are not afraid of elections," said Arnold, who works locally for the Communications Workers of America and specializes in organizing cable and telecom employees. "It's what happens during the time the company gets to intimidate the workers " that worries organizers, he said.

--snip--

Advisers and outside political strategists say that Obama cannot afford to get bogged down in a nasty fight on the polarizing issue at the same time he is trying to right the economy.

Obama said in an interview last week that he would proceed carefully, urging labor and business groups to work together on a compromise proposal that would remove impediments to organizing while addressing the "legitimate concerns" of business.

"Whether those conversations can bear fruit over the next several months, we'll see," Obama said. "But I'm always a big believer before we gear up for some tooth-and-nail battle . . . we see if some accommodations can't be found."

By and large, labor leaders have held off as Obama's economic-recovery legislation commanded the stage, but their patience might fade.

--snip--

The act is considered a lock for passage in the House, with the Senate the real battleground, because of the filibuster, a parliamentary procedure that can indefinitely delay the passage of controversial legislation. Republicans killed the bill in the Senate in 2007 with a filibuster, and by the time the bill comes up, the Democrats will likely remain at least one vote short of the 60 needed to break a filibuster.

Unions will have a tough time, said Randall Johnson, the National Chamber of Commerce vice president for labor. He said many legislators who wanted to please labor, but had doubts, had voted for the bill in the past knowing that President Bush would veto it.

"It was a freebie to give to the unions," he said.

Now the focus is on centrist Sen. Arlen Specter (R., Pa.), who broke with his party this month to support Obama's recently passed stimulus bill.

Specter voted in 2007 to break the filibuster on the Employee Free Choice Act, because, he said at the time, he was in favor of open debate. He never did say how he would have voted on the substance of the bill.

Specter has enjoyed substantial union support in past campaigns. But he is up for reelection next year and he has never been completely trusted by his party's right wing, which has focused on card check as a rallying issue. In addition, the business lobby, a key part of the GOP coalition, is adamantly opposed to the possibility of card check.

--snip--

In a recent news conference about its well-funded plans to oppose the legislation, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce pointed out that organized labor has set aside tens of millions of dollars "to go after members who don't toe the line on this issue and other issues," said Steven Law, the Chamber's chief legal officer.

"If this is how organized labor is going to treat lawmakers in broad daylight," Law said, "it paints an ugly picture of how they would treat a defenseless worker in a parking lot at night."

Yes, why just last night, a union organizer threatened to beat the sh*t out of me for not "toeing the line" and told me they will "go after" my family for drinking a "non-union" beer. :sarcasm:

Steven Law, C of C chief legal officer, you are a jagoff.

[LiberalFighter]

1. Tens of millions of dollars? How much has the Chamber, other organizations and companies

spent to defeat and prevent organizing?

[Earth Bound Misfit]

2. A lot more.

According to the AFL-CIO http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/voiceatwork/efca/against_list.cfm

Employee Freedom Action Committee/Center for Union Facts

Who They Are: These front groups, founded by lawyer/lobbyist Richard Berman, are multi-million dollar lobbying groups that do not disclose their funders. They spread disinformation about unions and advocate against the Employee Free Choice Act and other pro-worker legislation.

Money spent on anti-worker campaign: Employee Freedom Action Committee will spend $30 million on ads attacking pro-Employee Free Choice Act candidates in House and Senate races over the coming year.

“It changes the balance of power that is struck in labor law.” –Richard Berman, on the Employee Free Choice Act


Americans for Job Security

Who They Are: According to their website, this front group “does not disclose or discuss its membership.”

Money spent on anti-worker campaign: $38 million since 1997



Alliance for Worker Freedom

Who They Are: Founded in 2003, the AWF is an arm of Americans for Tax Reform, a group that seeks to limit the federal government’s ability to protect workers and consumers and ensure economic fairness.

“We’re going to crush labor as a political entity.” –Grover Norquist, founder and president of ATR



U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Who They Are: The U.S. Chamber is the nation’s most powerful business lobbying organization, and aggressively promote the corporate agenda through lobbying, donations to candidates, and bankrolling front groups. Chamber president Thomas Donohue has turned the organization into a key ally of the Bush-era corporate agenda that has empowered Big Business at the expense of workers. The Chamber has made opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act its top priority.

Money spent on anti-worker campaign: To fight the Employee Free Choice Act, the Chamber will spend $20-30 million in the next year.

“It would completely change the economics of union organizing.” – Chamber President Thomas Donohue on the Employee Free Choice Act

LEARN MORE at American Rights at Work


Coalition for a Democratic Workplace

Who They Are: A corporate front group funded by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Associated Builders and Contractors, and the Wal-Mart dominated Retail Industry Leaders Association, the CDW does the dirty work for these corporate interests through TV ads and public relations campaigns meant to block the Employee Free Choice Act and other pro-worker policies.

Money spent on the anti-worker campaign: $30 million to fight the Employee Free Choice Act over the next year.

These are just a few, I'm sure there are DOZENS more.