Card check stalls in Senate
The election of Barack Obama as president and Democrats reaching a 60-seat majority in the Senate last November were supposed to quickly usher in union-building legislation known as the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).
Instead, the controversial bill that has energized the business community in opposition has had difficulty getting enough votes for passage during Congress' current session.
The pro-union act is also referred to as 'card check' because it would replace the requirement that companies hold secret ballots and instead allow employees to organize a union simply by collecting signatures from a majority of workers.
Under the bill, if half of the workers plus one sign union cards the union is automatically recognized as their bargaining representative. Another provision states that if a collective bargaining agreement isn’t in place within 60 days of recognition then a federal arbitrator will impose the first two-year contract on the parties.
Senate sponsors are now trying come up with alternative language, but still don't have the support they need from moderate Democrats. Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., for example, has proposed that elections be decided by union membership cards mailed in by workers, instead of collected in person by union organizers. In an effort to shore up support, lead sponsor Tom Harkin of Iowa has offered to retain the secret ballot but otherwise make it easier for workers to organize.
Within hours of being sworn in after a court resolved a disputed election, Al Franken, D-Minn., co-sponsored EFCA last week. The bill has 41 sponsors. Proponents are trying to reach 60 votes to prevent a Republican filibuster of the bill.
Teamsters President Jim Hoffa and other labor leaders met with President Obama on Monday to discuss EFCA, health care and the economy.
Supporters are constrained by the fact that unions are demanding any compromise be substantially similar to the current form of the bill and by divisions among several key unions over turf that is distracting them from putting resources into organizing their members on behalf of EFCA.
Business groups are afraid that card-check legislation will make it easier to unionize and drive up costs. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the International Warehouse Logistics Association are among those working to defeat the bill.
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Clifford Otto, chief executive officer of Saddle Creek Corp., a warehouse and distribution provider headquartered in Lakeland, Fla., said he spent a day in mid-June on Capitol Hill meeting with Senate staff members to water down the legislation.
He sarcastically referred to the bill as 'The Employee Forced Choice Act,' in apparent reference to concerns that workers would be subject to coercion and intimidation if they didn't sign the cards.
Saddle Creek is opposed to any compromise on secret ballots or arbitration, he said during a panel discussion on the logistics industry last month in Washington.
'When peers or union organizers approach someone in the workplace it's very personal even if there's not any overt coercion. I think it's important that people be able to make that decision in private,' Michael Eastman, executive director of labor policy for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said in an interview.
Andy Stern, head of the Service Employees International Union, has stated that card check is no different than shareholders signing a proxy card to vote for board members.
'I'm not aware of a whole lot of examples of coercion or intimidation in the proxy process,' Eastman countered.
Meanwhile, Canada is turning its back on card check.
Provinces in Canada that had eliminated the secret ballot and imposed arbitration on contracts have been removing the laws from the books in recent years because they've had an adverse impact on labor, Eastman said.
In Quebec, for example, it can take two to three years to finalize a contract when arbitration is invoked. 'So it's hardly a way to speed up the process,' he said.
And, while arbitration can force a first contract into effect, it makes it much more difficult to get a second contract negotiated, he added.
Arbitration generally applies to the first contract.
The Canadian version of card check allows the employee to carry the same card to a new job even if he or she no longer works for the same employer, a situation that raises concerns among lawmakers and others that the National Labor Relations Board may not always write rules that are fair to employers. ' Eric Kulisch
