March 9, 2009
Politico
Tomorrow, Democrats in both houses of Congress plan to introduce a union-organizing bill that is labor’s top priority for the year, Democratic officials said. The result could be a high-decibel, high-stakes brawl between business and labor, which strongly supported President Obama.
Unions have been getting impatient for attention to the issue, and the push to introduce legislation is a way to ratchet up pressure on Congress. President Obama, who has said he recognizes that “the business community … considers this to be the devil incarnate,” said in January that he would like to bring the sides together.
The measure – known popularly as “card check” and formally as the Employee Free Choice Act – would allow a union to form after enough workers in a shop sign cards, or petitions, rather than voting by secret ballot. “The fact that the bill is being introduced so early in the session is an indication of it being a priority and of confidence in the vote count,” said a Democratic official involved in the negotiations.
But POLITICO's Glenn Thrush sees “surefire signs of stall” over the measure, and quotes leaders of both sides as saying it could be hung up for months, perhaps pushing it into the midterm election year of 2010.
The business community claims the measure would have a crushing effect, putting the White House and congressional Democrats in a tough spot as the economy tanks.
Randel Johnson, vice president for labor policy at the United States Chamber of Commerce, told The New York Times: “This will be Armageddon.”
President Obama favors the measure, but the White House has not weighed in on timing or tactics. He said in a pre-inauguration interview with The Washington Post that he “will certainly listen to all parties involved, including from labor and the business community, which I know considers this to be the devil incarnate.”
“I will listen to parties involved and see if there are ways that we can bring those parties together and restore some balance,” Obama said. “You know, now if the business community's argument against the Employee Free Choice Act is simply that it will make it easier for people to join unions and we think that is damaging to the economy
then they probably won't get too far with me. If their arguments are we think there are more elegant ways of doing this or here are some modifications or tweaks to the general concept that we would like to see.”
Legendary investor Warren Buffett, an Obama supporter, said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box”: “I think the secret ballot’s pretty important in the country. I’m against card check, to make a perfectly flat statement.”
Obama did not mention the measure in his address to a joint session of Congress. In videotaped remarks to the AFL-CIO Executive Council in Miami last week, he said:
“As we confront this crisis and work to provide health care to every American, rebuild our nation’s infrastructure, move toward a clean energy economy, and pass the Employee Free Choice Act, I want you to know that you will always have a seat at the table.”
And Vice President Biden told the group two days later: “[O]ne of the most difficult things will be to reinstitute that basic bargain. And I think the way to do that is the Employee Free Choice Act. “ Tbe Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions plans to start hearings this week.
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