JUNE 19, 2009:NWLP
6/16/09
10:05 AM
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Congress close to passing Employee Free Choice Act
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
Democrats in Congress may be close to passing
a bill that could reverse the decline of organized la-
bor in the United States. The Employee Free
Choice Act, considered the union movement’s top
priority legislation since 2003, could become law as
early as next month.
If and whenAl Franken is seated as U.S. senator
from Minnesota, backers believe they will have the
60 votes needed in the U.S. Senate to prevent a Re-
publican filibuster of the bill.
The Employee Free Choice Act would make it
easier for workers to unionize and obtain their first
union contract. It would also impose serious penal-
ties, for the first time ever, on employers that com-
mit egregious labor law violations when workers
try to unionize.
As proposed, the Employee Free Choice Act
would require an employer to recognize a union if
a majority of workers sign union authorization
cards. Right now, it's legal for employers to recog-
nize a union on the basis of this “card-check.” But
the employer has that choice — whether to recog-
nize the union at that point, or have a workplace
election. Employers almost always opt for the elec-
tion, because that delays the process six weeks, and
during that time, they use their overwhelming ad-
vantage in campaigning against the union. Em-
ployers can access employees at all times at work,
and can require workers to attend meetings on com-
pany time, from which pro-union voices are ex-
cluded.At the meetings, managers and outside con-
sultants may bad-mouth unions, make emotional
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appeals, and issue veiled threats that the plant will
close or workers lose pay and benefits if they vote
the union in.
The Employee Free Choice Act would also per-
mit civil fines of up to $20,000 per violation, plus
triple back pay, when workers are fired for sup-
porting a union drive. Right now there are no fines,
and workers who prove they were
fired for union activity get only
back pay, minus wages they earned
since they were fired. That tooth-
less penalty has made firing union
campaign leaders an acceptable
business expense for employers
that want to keep unions out.
Finally, the Employee Free
Choice Act provides for binding
arbitration of first-time union con-
tracts. Right now, workers face
great uncertainty when looking at whether to
unionize: Negotiating a first contract can take 18
months, during which no raises occur. Half the
time, employers stonewall and there’s no contract a
year later; a third of the time, newly-unionized
workers never get a contract, and vote the union out
after a few years. With binding arbitration, workers
would know they’d get a first contract, and be con-
fident it would be an improvement. If the two sides
couldn’t reach agreement in 90 days, the Employee
Free Choice Act says either side can request medi-
ation; 30 days after that, if there’s still no deal, ei-
ther side can request arbitration. The results would
be binding for two years, and would form the start-
ing point for future bargaining. Odds are very good
any contract imposed by an arbitrator would be an
improvement for workers, because legally, collec-
tive bargaining is not supposed to start from zero,
but from what workers currently get.
Labor leaders say they have a commitment from
the Democratic House and Senate leadership to
schedule a vote on the Employee Free Choice Act
Labor leaders say they have a
commitment from the
Democratic House and Senate
leadership to schedule a vote as
soon as (Al) Franken is seated.
as soon as Franken is seated. The bill already
passed the House last year, and would be expected
to pass there again this year. Its fate is trickier in the
Senate, where supporters need 60 votes (out of 100)
in order to cut off debate and permit a vote. After
the November 2008 election, Democrats had 57
votes counting Franken, plus independents Joe
Lieberman of Connecticut and Bernie Sanders of
Vermont. Pennsylvania Sen.Arlen Specter’s switch
to the Democratic Party in April brought the party
to the needed 60 votes.
Specter is a special case when it comes to the
Employee Free Choice Act. In previous sessions of
Congress, he was the lone Republican to sign on as
a co-sponsor of the bill. But on March 24 he infuri-
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
ated labor when he held a press conference an-
nouncing he could no longer support it as written.
Specter’s announcement caused some observers to
announce the Employee Free Choice Act was dead
this year. But state labor activists kept up the pres-
sure, running TV ads and generating over 150,000
letters, faxes and phone calls. And Pennsylvania
politics changed the equation.
Specter is up for re-election in 2010, and con-
servative Republican Congressman Pat Toomey an-
nounced April 15 he would challenge Specter in
the Republican primary. Polls suggested Specter,
considered too moderate by many Republicans,
would lose the party’s nomination. So Specter de-
fected April 28 to the Democratic Party.
Then on May 27, Specter learned he would face
a challenge for the Democratic nomination, from
Congressman Joe Sestak. Labor backing, which
helped Specter win when he was a Republican, will
be even more important now that he’s a Democrat.
Understanding that, Specter has been conspicu-
ously courting labor’s favor.
Specter showed up at a June 6 Employee Free
Choice Act rally in Pittsburgh, and the crowd of
several hundred unionists cheered to see him take
the mic. But before he could speak, the chant “Free
Choice!” broke out from the ranks. Specter tried to
talk about all the other times he’d voted with labor
over the years, but one rally-goer interrupted him,
yelling, “You want my vote? I want yours!” The
reference, of course, was to Specter’s vote when the
Employee Free Choice Act comes up.
“I understand your jobs are on the line,” Specter
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JUNE 19, 2009