Despite having a 60 seat majority, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) still lacks enough votes to pass the Employee Free Choice Act (also known as Card Check) in its current form, according to Sen. John Thune (R-SD).
However, there is now talk of a possible compromise that could preserve the binding arbitration provision of the bill, which would be just as lethal to business interests and to the nation’s overall economic health, said Thune. He was speaking in a blogger conference call Thursday.
Under Card Check 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.
The arbitration provision of the proposal requires that labor and management have just 120 days to reach an agreement before a two year contract is imposed by a federal mediator in a compulsory process.
Union leaders believe the Card Check provision will enable them to turn around declining membership, while the arbitration process would result in more generous benefits because federal mediators are partial to organized labor.
“I do not believe that Sen. Reid has the votes necessary to pass this very bad piece of legislation,” he said. “Jobs are not created by unions or government arbitrators. They are created by small businesses and entrepreneurs who would be hit hardest by this law if enacted. Small businesses are already struggling mightily and the last thing they need is for Congress to saddle them with higher costs and more regulations.”
Although the Card Check portion of the bill has received the most attention in the media and on Capitol Hill, the binding arbitration measure deserves just as much scrutiny because it would ultimately force many companies out of business, Thune said.
“There cannot be a compromise when it comes to Card Check and mandatory arbitration because the stakes are too high for workers, for small business and our economic recovery,” he said. “As egregious as taking away the secret ballot is, a lot of businesses around the country find the binding arbitration component to be even more egregious because if you cannot get an agreement in a certain amount of time a government arbitrator comes in to prescribe all the workplace conditions, the wages, and the benefits.”
That means, Thune said, “there is no incentive here on the part of the union to sit down and negotiate in good faith, they could just wait. That’s something that’s been lost a little bit I think in the whole question about the secret ballot.”
Although labor bosses are now in talks with their Democratic allies in Congress to force a possible compromise, Sen. Thune does not believe they are well positioned to find common ground with moderate Democratic senators such as Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas.
“The bill will go further to the left as it goes through the process,” he said. “It will go into conference in the House and you’re going to end up with most of the elements of the original legislation. There is no point in compromise if you can win the vote and I think we can. When everyone is talking compromise that tells me we are winning the debate and we ought to continue to stay strong.”
