Obama and unions still working it out

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics/story/1428210.html

By RANDOLPH HEASTER
The Kansas City Star

Organized labor has been waiting for this for years, perhaps even decades: There’s a Democrat in the White House, and Democrats have tight-fisted control of both the U.S. House and Senate.

So the Employee Free Choice Act, labor’s long-touted bill to make it easier for American workers to join a union, a bill that President Barack Obama gave full-throated support to in the 2008 campaign, should be a slam dunk to pass, right?

Not so fast. As many of us honor the American worker on Labor Day, the relationship between Obama and the country’s unions is still evolving.

Labor voices were muffled for eight years under the Bush administration, but there’s no question now that unions are being heard at the White House on a host of issues.

But are the unions just one small constituency that tries to influence the president’s policies, or is Obama succumbing to the every whim of Big Labor like a New Deal Democrat?

“The unions definitely have the ear of this president,” said Gary Chaison, industrial relations professor at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. “They like what Obama’s done so far, but they certainly haven’t been overwhelmed by him.”

FULL story at link.