Union bill a political minefield
By: Susan Ferrechio
Chief Congressional Correspondent
February 23, 2009
 |
| Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev., center, accompanied by Senators, speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday. From second from left are, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Reid, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa. (AP photo) |
Beginning today, Congress has six weeks of legislative work before the next recess, which sounds like plenty of time to move through some big initiatives, including the Employee Free Choice Act Democrats promised labor unions would be passed quickly.
But the legislation, which would make it easier for unions to organize workplaces, has turned into a political minefield for the Democrats who, despite wide majorities in both chambers, have pushed action on the legislation into the summer to avoid what one blogger called “the mother of all labor brawls.”
In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., may have difficulty rounding up the 60 votes needed to prevent Republicans from blocking the legislation, which opponents have nicknamed the “card check bill.”
Opponents say the bill does away with secret ballots for union votes, and they suggest that unions want to be able to apply direct pressure on workers because most efforts currently fail.
Reid controls the Senate with 58 Democratic votes, two shy of the supermajority he needs. But two of his Democrats, Sens. Mark L. Pryor and Blanche L. Lincoln, both of Arkansas, a right-to-work state, have signaled they may not vote for it.
“Senator Lincoln has not made up her mind yet on the legislation,” her spokeswoman said Friday. Pryor has refused to co-sponsor the legislation, which he has done in the past. Instead, he wants a compromise bill that would also satisfy business groups that vehemently oppose the Employee Free Choice Act.
When the Senate rejected the bill last year, every Democrat, including Lincoln and Pryor, voted for it, as did one Republican, Sen. Arlen Specter.
Reid cannot necessarily count on Specter this time. Specter is running for a fifth term in Pennsylvania. It’s a heavily unionized state, but business groups have threatened to bankroll a strong primary challenge to Specter if he votes in favor of it again.
“On that issue, they have thrown the gauntlet down,” said Franklin and Marshall College political science professor Terry Madonna. “If Specter supports it, small businesses are going to abandon him. If he votes against it, I doubt he will get the endorsement of the [AFL-CIO] union. No senator is more on the griddle than Specter on this issue.”
Support for the legislation has weakened in the House, too. While the bill passed easily last year before dying in the Senate, the more conservative Democrats in the Blue Dog Coalition have grown sensitive to opposition from the business community, which has decried the bill as a job killer.
The legislation would allow union organizers to bypass a secret ballot vote and would instead require only signatures on a petition to form a union. While proponents say the bill removes unnecessary roadblocks to unionizing, critics say it would eliminate time for company representatives to argue their viewpoint that unionizing hurts job creation and job stability.
Some Blue Dogs, particularly those from Southern right-to-work states, want to wait for it to pass the Senate, where it could be softened. The Blue Dogs also want to avoid voting for the bill only to watch it fail in the Senate.
The Senate-first approach, a top Democratic leadership aide said, “is one option, but it has not been decided on.” The aide also said the bill could come up in the House before summer.
President Barack Obama has been conspicuously, and some say wisely, silent on the topic. But he said last month that he would not push for passage in the current economic climate.
“If we are losing half a million jobs a month, then there are no jobs to unionize,” Obama told The Washington Post. “So my focus first is on ... key economic priority items.”
sferrechio@dcexaminer.com
