Scoopin' the NY Times: Reports of the death of union cardcheck still premature

Reports of the death of union cardcheck still premature
by John Wojcik
People's Weekly World

A report in the New York Times today that says senators have “dropped” the majority sign-up provision of the Employee Free Choice Act is not accurate.

A spokesperson for Sen. Tom Harkin, the Iowa Democrat who is shepherding the bill through the Senate, said that “no particular provisions of the bill have been agreed to and cannot be agreed to until there is an entire bill that can be agreed to.”

“As we have said from day one, majority signup is the best way for workers to have the right to choose a voice at their workplace,” declared Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, this morning. He added, referring directly to the Times article, “The Employee Free Choice Act is going through the usual legislative process, and we expect a vote on a majority signup provision in the final bill or by amendment in both houses of Congress.”

Majority signup has been the way workers designate a union as their representative since the Wagner Act was passed during the Great Depression. Taft-Hartley amended that after World War II to allow companies the option of requiring a “secret ballot” election if workers indicate, by signing cards, that they want to be represented by a union.

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White House: Employee Free Choice a Priority

From the AFL-CIO Blog:

In yesterday’s White House press briefing, a reporter raised the question of whether President Barack Obama and the administration continued to support the Employee Free Choice Act.

Here’s what White House press secretary Robert Gibbs had to say:

I think you heard the President talk about his support for it throughout the campaign, and it’s obviously one of many things that we will work on throughout our time here.

I believe it is, again, something the President campaigned on and we’d like to see happen.

This is no surprise—Barack Obama and his administration have reiterated several times over their continued support for Employee Free Choice and the need to restore workers’ freedom to bargain as a critical part of economic recovery.

Despite an ongoing, multimillion-dollar corporate disinformation campaign and the ferocious opposition by the enablers of CEOs in the Senate, the Employee Free Choice Act continues to have the strong support in the White House and in both houses of Congress, and that’s a testament to the determination and grassroots mobilization of millions of union members and a broad coalition of allies who know that it’s what our economy needs.

Reid: Vote on card check bill, a labor priority, likely in summer

Las Vegas Sun
By Lisa Mascaro
Tue, Jan 27, 2009

Washington — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the Senate will likely turn its attention this summer to the Employee Free Choice Act — the union organizing bill being watched in Las Vegas and across the nation.

Standing beside fair-pay advocate Lilly Ledbetter late last week after the Senate passed landmark legislation named in her honor, Reid made clear that the wage discrimination bill was not the last on the labor agenda.

The union organizing bill, sometimes called card check, is an “important piece of legislation,” he said. “We’re going to get to that,” Reid said. “We’re hoping to get to it sometime this summer.”

The Senate will be where the action is on the Employee Free Choice Act. The bill passed the House in 2007, but died on a near-party line vote after only one Republican crossed over to support it in the Senate. With an expanded Democratic majority under Reid, it could be closer to passage.

The bill would make it easier for unions to organize and would likely bring union representation to workers at the remaining casinos on the Strip still without it.

The legislation would allow workers interested in forming a union to simply sign a card, returning to a system that had been in place for decades, until business persuaded Congress to require secret-ballot elections.

The secret ballots could still be used, but the new bill would provide the option of organizing with the sign-up cards. Unions say management often drags out the elections, using the time to pressure workers to vote no.

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