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Senator Specter back on board? (AP Photo: Gene J. Puskar)
Just a few short weeks ago, it was declared dead. Six feet under. Muerte. Like the ex-parrot in the Monty Python sketch. The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), the number one legislative priority of labor unions, was not going to make it past a Senate filibuster, effectively killing the bill. Businesses started breathing easier. Unions, who spent hundreds of millions to get pro-labor politicians elected in 2008, were angry and demoralized.
It seems the bill’s demise was greatly exaggerated. Many senators, including Republican-now-Democrat Arlen Specter and Dianne Feinstein, were queasy over the EFCA’s “card check” provision, which would mandate union recognition based on signed authorization cards from a majority of employees, rather than a secret ballot election. Unions, realizing they had been out-lobbied by business interests, have been turning up the pressure on wavering senators over recent weeks, and both Specter and Feinstein recently signaled their willingness to vote for a compromise version of EFCA. Labor may have 60 votes for the bill after all, allowing the legislation to get through the Senate and onto President Obama’s desk in the next few months.
If EFCA becomes law, it is not the Wal-Marts of the world who will be most affected. Wal-Mart has already educated its employees regarding unions and authorization cards, as have many other large corporations. Instead, unions will likely target small and mid-size companies because they usually don’t have the experience or resources to respond effectively to organizing attempts.
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As the job-destroying, union bailout bill known as the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) has become bogged down in the U.S. Senate, Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) has established himself as union bosses' chief negotiator in the U.S. Senate and, in fact, is beginning to act a bit like a union thug himself.
In fact, if Harkin's attempt to reach a compromise on EFCA fails, he has sworn to take the original measure to the Senate floor for an "up or down vote" to let the voters "see for themselves who in the Senate is really with them or against them."
As the United Steel Workers (formerly of America) stated on June 18th:
"Senator Harkin...has vowed to either find a solution that works to get to 60 votes, or force those unsupportive Senators to take a vote on the original measure. This way, we know where they stand come election time..."
In other words, Harking (doing union bosses' bidding) seems to be blackmailing his fellow Dems. Go to LaborUnionReport.com for more on EFCA.
Does the OP suggest requiring a politician to vote on a bill and let his constituents know where he stands on an issue--as Senator Harkin is within his procedural rights as committee Chairman to schedule-- is "thuggery?" Or did some corporate website put those words in his mouth, as i suspect?
I live in a democracy. I have a right to know if the candidate who sought the money and votes of working people will vote with us or against us when our issues come before him, and as a free citizen, I will move heaven and earth to defeat any hypocrite Democrat (hear that Feinstein?) who pretends to be the friend of workers when she needs our votes and then screws us in Congress.
I appreciate Senator Harkin's willingness to shed light on areas far too long kept in the dark by shoe who long for the Bush/Cheney days like the OP who want working people to sit down and shut up.
Those days are but a miserable memory now, my friend.
democracy--it's not a spectator sport.
Liberty Love
To so-called "Liberty Lover":
How many more of you "democracy" disciples must infect our country?
I wish you would study the history of this country -- it was founded as a constitutional republic.
If it is pure "democracy" that you want, then tyranny is what you will ultimately get.
If it were pure democracy I wanted, then I --and you--would get to vote on the EFCA. I don't support that. I DO support representational democracy where my elected representatives act in a transparent way where I know how they vote on issues important to me.
Do you, or the inital poster corporate flak, see any inconsistency with the intent of the founders, the amendments and court decisions that have strengthened the role of the federal government and weakened the role the states ever since the failure of the Articles of Confederation and Southern Secession, and requiring an elected representative to stand on his/her record? Or do you, to , think such accountability to the citizens is "thuggery"?
To "Liberty Lover":
I am not sure what point you are trying to make here.
Which vote of which elected official are you not able to see? Will it not be clear if Arlen Specter votes "yes" or "no" on this bill?
Go to Congress.gov and see their votes.
You keep referring to "corporate" this or that. What do you not understand about this:
"Instead, unions will likely target small and mid-size companies because they usually don’t have the experience or resources to respond effectively to organizing attempts."
Don't you get it? The Union Bosses will take token shots at the big dog companies, but, will likely take first aim at ~25-500 if "Card Check" becomes law.
Is that not small business?
"Card Check," of course, is a massive expansion of the federal government's reach into contract relations between employees and employers. That is wrong.
Again, you can see any vote you want online.
Where is the beef?
Government always suffocates people. This
What is a "union boss" ? Union thugs ? Where are they and who are they ?
Go Harkin. the union belongs to the workers and they are the ones who sign up the majority of the their co-workers. That is the democracy in the workplace. the bosses come out with a campaign of lies against the union so they won't have to negotiate better wages, benefits or health care. America is going down the toilet because inflation is killing the average person and up. It is time to pay the American worker an honest wage and benefits. this is the core aim of the union.
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