Was Card Check Just A "Red Herring?"

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/07/17/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5169347.shtml

July 17, 2009 2:19 PM

Posted by Brian Montopoli

(CBS/AP) There has been a fierce battle this year over a piece of legislation known as the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill the potential to revitalize the U.S. labor movement. On one side of the debate is organized labor, which has seen its rolls shrink dramatically in the past 50 years. Just 7.6 percent of private-sector workers now belong to a union.

On the other side are business groups, who say the legislation will cripple businesses by increasing labor costs at the worst possible time. (Here's Hotsheet's primer on the bill.)

On Friday, the New York Times ran a front-page story declaring a key provision in the bill known as "card check" -- which would mandate that a union is formed when a majority of a company's employees sign cards saying they want one -- effectively dead. According to the Times, moderate Senate Democrats killed the provision during negotiations, arguing that it is undemocratic because it effectively eliminates secret ballots. Since Democrats need all sixty of their Senate votes to overcome a filibuster of the legislation, these moderates -- among them Arlen Specter, Ben Nelson and Blanche Lincoln -- are key to the bill's passage.

But representatives on both sides of the issue signaled in interviews with Hotsheet Friday that they are skeptical of the Times report. Josh Goldstein of American Rights at Work said in an interview that it is "premature to make any assumptions about what's going on in negotiations when the people who are in those negotiations are clearly stating that there is no deal."

"As far as I know, majority sign up is still on the table," he said. "And we're still fighting for it."

And Mark McKinnon of the Workforce Fairness Institute, a business group, told Hotsheet, "I don't think it's so much a compromise as it is a trial balloon."

FULL story at link.

[LiberalAndProud]

1. Brings to mind Twain's most quotable quote.

"Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated”

[AnnInLa]

2. I've seen this theory floated around the internet

and, logically, there may be some truth to it. On a much smaller scale, I was on the negotiating team for our local school employees when we negotiated our work contract. We frequently used such red herrings to get what we really wanted. Also, on some of the RW websites, they are not mollified at all by giving up card check....they are more afraid of the mandatory arbitration and the quick elections.

[ejpoeta]

3. all i know is this.... my husband's work is going through round 2 of

scare the employee meetings revving up for the coming vote for a union. the one last year failed by five votes. i guess bob asked the boss about nyc (which DID unionize) and if they didn't get a raise while everyone else did not. the boss said nothing to that. I don't know if they will get it passed this time or not. personally, one would hope that folks would remember what has happened SINCE the last vote... being, they took the level 3s or whatever they were who got paid more and cut their pay and sent them to level 2 and took the level 1s (which is what bob was) and gave them a pay raise and bumped them to level 2, which was nice for us.... but seemed quite unfair and should make everyone there feel uneasy.... if they could do it to the level 3 guys, what's to say they wouldn't do it to everyone. but i never overestimate the intelligence of anyone!!

[timeforpeace]

4. What's the big deal about secret ballots?

[lilytea]

5. nothing is

people just don't like the name established to it

[Doremus]

7. The secret ballot argument is a rightwing lie.

Cards do not preclude secret ballot if employees desire it.

FYI.

[Earth Bound Misfit]

9. The Secret Ballot "NLRB Style" is...

http://www.examiner.com/x-2071-DC-Special-Interests-Examiner~y2009m1d13-Secret-ballot-argument-against-Employee-Free-Choice-&feature=player_ded">a Secret Ballot In Name Only. The man in the video is Dr. Gordon Lafer. Read his report FREE AND FAIR? HOW LABOR LAW FAILS U.S. DEMOCRATIC STANDARDS. The report investigates how current union election procedures measure up to U.S. democratic standards. In spite of the presence of secret ballots, the report concludes that union representation elections fall alarmingly short of living up to the most fundamental tenets of democracy.

I have some info/links in my journal on this subject you might find helpful or informative: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Earth%20Bound%20Misfit

Some of the better (IMHO) ones are:

The Employee Free Choice Act--A Human Rights Imperative http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=367x19981

RIGHTS WITHOUT REMEDIES: The Failure of the National Labor Relations Act http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=367x19857


Read them and decide for yourself.

BTW, a belated welcome to DU :hi:

About Dr Lafer:

Gordon Lafer is an Associate Professor at the University of Oregon, where he has lectured on economic policy,globalization, labor, and American politics since 1997. He received his Ph.D. in political science with distinctionfrom Yale University in 1995.

Additionally, he has served as an economic policy advisor to the New York City Mayor’s Office and as a strategic consultant for a wide range of labor organizations.Lafer is the author of The Job Training Charade (Cornell University Press, 2002) and of numerous articles in popular and scholarly journals on topics of economic development, employment policy, and political theory. He is also the founder and co-chair of the American Political Science Association’s Labor Project.

[1]

6. steve, help me out here. i don't understand this issue...

what exactly is this problem?

a secret vote is a bad thing? and a public vote is a good thing?

that just seems to fly in the face of what i know. so apparently i don't know what is going on here.

could you give us the answer, in a short statement, why secret vs public changes the matter so much?

i'm not trying to be a dick. i just don't get what you obviously know.

help a brother out...

[Earth Bound Misfit]

10. See my reply # 9 n/t

[backscatter712]

8. Other parts of EFCA are also important...

Even without card-check, there's the streamlined election procedures, which would still be very problematic, but would give unscrupulous companies less time and opportunity for the usual shenanigans such as worker intimidation, firings, propagandizing, etc.

EFCA also imposes increased penalties for illegal firings, worker intimidation and other anti-union shenanigans, and it imposes mandatory arbitration for first-contract negotiations, to prevent companies from stonewalling that first contract to try to make the union fall apart.

I'm doubt that card-check was a red-herring for the other parts of EFCA, and I'm definitely disappointed that card-check didn't make it, but I will say that the other less-well-known parts of EFCA are still absolutely worthwhile and should become law.