Unions Not Giving Up on Card Check Yet
According to Investors Business Daily:
When the dust settled after the election last week, the Democrats fell just short of the 60-vote, filibuster-proof Senate majority they wanted. That's put a question mark over one of the party's most controversial initiatives: the Employee Free Choice Act.
Democrats, including President-elect Barack Obama, campaigned hard for the pro-union legislation, also known as "card check." Big Labor, which threw its support behind the party, wants it badly. But without a filibuster-proof majority, its chances are slim.
That's prompted rumors in Washington that unions might accept putting card check aside in favor of pushing issues like binding arbitration. Big Labor publicly scoffs at such talk.
AFL-CIO Legislative Director Bill Samuels said the card check side can count on 58 votes, just two votes short of the number needed to overcome a filibuster.
But three Senate races remain unresolved and some senators may flip, Samuels says. So they see no reason not to push for a vote.
"Business may be looking for a way out of this debate . . . because of the election results," he said. "But this is a new president, a new Congress, and we hope to bring more Republicans on board."
He conceded, though, that a Senate vote may have to wait until after Obama's first 100 days.
The legislation would make union organizing radically easier by bypassing federally monitored elections with an open petition drive. If a majority of workers sign the cards, then a workplace is unionized...click to continue.
