Opinion
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Card check compromise still weighted in favor of labor, critics charge
By: Kevin Mooney
Commentary Staff Writer
07/17/09 6:47 PM EDT
At least six Democratic senators reportedly are willing to drop the controversial Card Check provision of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) in a compromise designed to lure key moderates, but critics of the measure say it’s still fatally flawed.
Under the proposed Card Check system, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) would be required to certify a union without a secret ballot election if labor representatives obtained signatures from 51 percent of a company’s workforce.
That would eliminate secret ballots in workplace representation elections, according to Workforce Fairness Institute (WFI) and others opposed to the bill.
The compromise being considered on Capitol Hill calls for workforce representation elections to be held 10 days after 30 percent of workers sign cards in favor of organizing.
“This so called compromise is really just window dressing,” said Greg Mourad, director of legislation for National Right to Work (NRTW). “These quick snap elections would give the unions as much time as they want to propagandize the workforce and collect petitions, while the other side has just 10 days. The current average is 42 days when petitions are turned in to when elections take place and we think this is a reasonable time frame.”
Senate labor allies agreed to drop the phrase “card check” as the legislation became more unpopular, but unions would still get 95 percent of what they want, Mourad said.
Another point of contention concerns the binding arbitration provision of the bill that stipulates labor and management have just 120 days to reach an agreement before a two year contract is imposed by a federal mediator.
Any compromise with the binding arbitration provision included would be a “non-starter, given the impact it would have on small business owners and the economy as a whole” said Mark McKinnon, a WFI spokesman.
“Why would you bother to negotiate under those circumstances, if you’re labor and you know you’re going to get a better deal from a bureaucrat in Washington D.C. who does not know your business and comes from a Democratic administration?” McKinnon said.
Die-hard labor demands to keep Card Check in the bill could prevent a compromise, McKinnon said.
Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), still wants an up and down vote on Card Check to get U.S. senators on record.
“This seems to be more of a trial balloon than a compromise,” McKinnon said. “Andy Stern is not in on the deal because it out there saying he still expects a vote on Card Check and neither are key senators.”
The compromise strategy is nothing new and could make possible a measure that would be even more damaging to businesses, said Brett McMahon, vice-president of Miller and Long, a Maryland-based concrete construction company
“This is typical union negotiating tactics,” he said. “They usually give ground on one of their most unreasonable demands after all the objections have been made. Then they come back with something even worse and claim the moral high ground for having ‘compromised’ on their first demand. I predict that we will see an even more onerous, more intrusive, more job-killing piece of legislation after the unions and their senators get done.”
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