"Card Check" Without The Card Check

Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio said today he expects the Senate to eventually pass the Employee Free Choice Act in a compromise version which will dump the provision eliminating secret ballot elections when a majority of employees have signed union authorization cards. Brown himself opposes elimination of the provision, but acknowledges it would be extremely difficult to get the required 60 votes, over intense business lobbying against the measure, unless the card check - no secret ballot clause is dropped from the bill.

Senator Specter's New Colleagues Rein Him In On Card Check Prediction

Recently converted Democratic Senator Arlen Specter is getting his comeuppance from caucus colleagues in response to his remark earlier this week that the upper chamber has "pounded out a deal" on the Employee Free Choice Act, commonly known as the card check bill. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says he is not aware of any deal, Majority Whip Dick Durbin says card check is still a work in progress, and North Carolina Senator Kay Hagan says "From what I understood, the whole card check issue was dead."

Latest word on this issue could have come from famed New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra. Leas Democratic negotiator for the measure, Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa remarked, "I thought we were close to having an agreement that we could bring out and vote on. Close - nothing's final until you bring it out."

"Card Check" Legislation Stalls Until January

New Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Tom Harkin says he doesn't have the votes to move this controversial measure to the Senate floor until the Senate seats a replacement for his predecessor, the late Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy. "I've got to make sure we have the votes for it," Harkin said of the card check measure. "Right now, we're missing a vote. Kennedy's replacement is not likely to be seated before the first of next year.

Responding to Senator Arlen Specter's remark to the AFL-CIO convention in Pittsburgh that senate negotiators have "pounded out" a revamped version of the Employee Free Choice Act, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka announced, "There is no final deal in place. We are going to keep fighting for labor law reform that will allow workers to join a union free from intimidation and harassment." Senate negotiators have not actually met face to face to discuss this bill since July.

Card Check Stalls Out

Senator Tom Harkin, who replaced Teddy Kennedy as Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Chairman, said yesterday in a candid speech to American Rights at Work that the Employee Free Choice Act is not likely to be called up for a vote on the Senate floor until January at the earliest, after a new Massachusetts Senator has been elected to fill Kennedy's seat in that chamber. Harkin promised to call the bill for a vote as soon as there are enough Senators to vote cloture on the bill.

"Card Check" Under Attack

The Labor Policy Institute, lobbying arm of the National Association of Manufacturers, is launching an advertising and direct mail campaign in Arkansas and Colorado attacking the Employee Free Choice Act, colloquially known as the "card check" bill, because Colorado Democrat Michael Bennett and Arkansas Democrats Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln are seen as the key votes which could kill the bill. NAM Executive Vice President Jay Timmons described the reasons behind the campaign: "This bill is one of the greatest threats to manufacturers' economic competitiveness. We want to remind manufacturers and the public that this bill would destroy jobs. The EFCA would send our economy and our nation in the wrong direction."

Apparently the AFL-CIO is a little bit worried about the same sort of problem, since the expected incoming president has been quoted as saying the unions could live with a bill preserving employers' rights to continue insisting on secret ballot elections before collective bargaining becomes at their plants.

"Card Check" Bill May Need A Name Change

Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO, expected to elected president of the lab or organization later this month, and a former president of the United Mine Workers, has his finger in the dike holding together this legislative initiative, but even he can see the dike is cracking. Asked yesterday whether the AFL-CIO could accept a labor law reform measure preserving management's right to insist on a secret ballot vote before a company is unionized, he said the "card check" provision of the pending measure "may or may not be" a key to union support for the final bill. Trumka said the AFL-CIO sees three provisions of the reform bill as "must haves" for organized labor: freedom of union organizers from management harassment; stiffened penalties for management violations, and tighter deadlines for concluding union contract negotiations.

The question now is whether anyone in either house of Congress is listening to him.

Employee Free Choice Act Thrown In the Freezer

According to Senator Tom Harkin, talks with Senators Arlen Specter, Mark Pryor, Sherrod Brown, Thomas Carper and Charles Schumer lead Harkin to conclude that card check legislation could not get the required 60 votes in the Senate this year. Whether some watered down compromise preserving a requirement for secret ballot elections regarding union representation could emerge before the end of the session remains to be seen.

Employee Free Choice Act Faces Arbitration Hurdle

Emboldened by their apparent victory in keeping the secret ballot requirement part of union organizing efforts, business groups are now turning against the federal arbitration provisions of this labor legislation. U. S. chamber of Commerce Labor Law Policy Executive Director Michael Eastman called the bill's binding arbitration provision "a non-starter for the business community," and Coalition for a Democratic Workplace Chairman Brian Worth said the apparently defunct card check rule was "only half the political problem" - binding arbitration seemingly being the other half.