April 3, 2009:NWLP
3/31/09
9:46 AM
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...Meeting with Gregoire tense, unproductive
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weren’t bold enough to come out and
declare the bill dead.… with Democrats
like these, who needs Republicans?”
As for Boeing, why is the longtime
union employer so opposed to the bill?
Here’s one explanation: Boeing has ag-
gressively outsourced aircraft parts pro-
duction in the last decade, much of it to
local nonunion contractors. The com-
pany saves money if parts are cheaper,
and parts can be cheaper when the
workers who make them make lower
pay and benefits. If workers at aircraft
suppliers unionize, they might improve
wages and benefits, and that might cut
into the Boeing profit model.
Mandatory-attendance anti-union
meetings are one of the most effective
ways employers defeat union cam-
paigns. The Worker Privacy Act would-
n’t ban the meetings, but workers would
no longer be forced to attend out of fear
they’d be disciplined.
“The fact that there is so much push-
back by employers tells us that there’s a
lot of abuse going on that they want to
continue,” said Machinists District
Lodge 751 spokesperson Connie Kelle-
her.
WSLC hasn’t given up on passing
the bill. Democrats outnumber Repub-
licans 64 to 34 in the House and 31 to
18 in the Senate. And ostensibly, the
Worker Privacy Act has strong support,
with 47 House sponsors and 21 Senate
sponsors. In an open letter to the three
leaders, WSLC called for “a moment of
truth: All we ask is for a fair vote. If it
fails, so be it. Our elected representatives
are adults. They can explain why they
voted ‘yes’ or why they voted ‘no.’”
But when WSLC and a group of la-
bor leaders met with Gregoire, Chopp,
and Brown March 25, the fate of the
Worker Privacy remained unresolved,
with WSLC calling on the three to use
their power to give it a vote, and the
three not budging.
The meeting lasted 75 minutes, and it
was tense. Gregoire, Chopp and Brown
gave no kind of apology nor any indica-
tion they’d bring it back for a vote, said
WSLC spokesperson Kathy Cummings,
who took part in the meeting.
“The governor even said in the meet-
ing that she didn’t think there were re-
ally criminal charges. Then why did she
agree to send it to the police?”
“All of labor was offended on this,”
Cummings added, but the three leaders
didn’t seem to understand that. “They
gave us their word, and they went back
on it. They indicated all along to us up
until the very end that they wanted to
pass this bill.”
“It came out plainly in the meeting
that it was all about Boeing’s position.
We talked about it point-blank. [Gre-
goire] said she was trying to save the
Democrats from being blamed if Boe-
ing left the state,” Cummings said.
“We’re getting a lot of angry e-mails
and phone calls from our members,”
Cummings said. “They’re angry.”
Union officials have called on legis-
lators in the working families caucus to
ask leadership for a vote. But they’re not
optimistic that the lawmakers will defy
legislative leadership.
“We mobilize a lot of volunteers dur-
ing the election, to knock on doors,
make phone calls,” Cummings said.
“We work very hard to elect working
family friendly legislators. Trying to get
those volunteers out in the next election
is going to be very hard.”
The incident has “severely strained”
labor’s relationship with state Demo-
cratic leaders, Bender said in the labor
council’s official statement.
Says Cummings: “At this point,
there’s basically a huge schism between
labor and the Democratic leadership of
Washington.”
Pressure on lawmakers to kill EFCA escalates
Fear, intimidation, and intense pres-
sure by corporate lobbyists have caused
some U.S. senators to start waffling on
the Employee Free Choice Act.
EFCA is a bill that would make it
easier for workers to form a union, while
also enacting tougher penalties on em-
ployers who violate labor laws during
organizing campaigns.
Big Business is spending millions of
dollars to distort and defeat the bill.
Last month, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-
Pa.), an original co-sponsor of the legis-
lation, said that he would support a fili-
buster this year in order to block EFCA
from coming to a floor vote.
The announcement by Specter —
who voted for cloture in 2007 —
stunned union officials. “It is a rebuke to
working people, to his own constituents
in Pennsylvania and working families
around the country,” said AFL-CIO
President John Sweeney.
Both the U.S. Senate and House have
enough votes to pass the bill. [All con-
gressional Democrats from Oregon and
Washington support it.] The problem
lies in the Senate. Since 2003,when
EFCA was first introduced, Big Busi-
ness and its allies have had the hammer
of the filibuster — and President
George Bush — to block passage. Pro-
ponents need 60 votes to end a filibuster
(invoke cloture), and Bush promised to
veto EFCA if it ever reached his desk.
This year, Democrats are in firm con-
trol of both chambers, and Democratic
President Barack Obama says he will
sign the bill if it gets to his desk.
This has resulted in a major offensive
by Big Business, which launched a
multi-million-dollar ad campaign and
dispatched its lobbyists to pressure law-
makers to oppose EFCA — or at least
support a filibuster.
Specter was the first to cave in.
However, several Democrats who
co-sponsored the bill in 2007 have yet
to do so this year.
“We do not plan to let a hardball
campaign from Big Business derail the
Employee Free Choice Act,” Sweeney
said. Labor will ramp up its campaign
during the congressional recess April 6-
17 with union members planning events
and arranging visits with their lawmak-
ers in support of EFCA.
Majority support
making union
organizing easier
Gallup Surveys released a poll in
March finding that 53 percent of re-
spondents favored a new law that
would “make it easier for labor unions
to organize workers.” Only 39 percent
of respondents opposed such a law.
When asked how important it was
that Congress pass such a law, 26 per-
cent of respondents said “very,” 29
percent said “somewhat,” 23 percent
said “not too important,” and 20 per-
cent said “not important at all.”
Added up, the findings provide a
boost to backers of the Employee Free
Choice Act, with 55 percent express-
ing some desire to see Congress act on
the legislation and 43 percent express-
ing a level of opposition or ambiva-
lence.
Breaking the response down by po-
litical affiliation, more than one out of
three Republicans favor such a law (34
percent to 60 percent opposed); Inde-
pendents support easier unionization
by a margin of 52 percent to 41 per-
cent; and Democrats are in support by
a 70 percent to 23 percent ratio.
The study was conducted via a poll
of 1,024 people across the nation on
March 14-15. The survey did not ref-
erence the legislation by its name
(Employee Free Choice Act) or by the
descriptions used by its opponents,
like “card check.”
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