WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 — Organized labor is fighting for a pro-union bill as if its life depended on it.þþSome labor experts say the union movement’s ability to reverse its slide could in fact hinge on its winning passage of the bill, which would make it easier for workers to join unions. þþThe United States Chamber of Commerce, the National Retail Federation and more than a dozen other business groups are mounting a fierce campaign to stop the bill, inundating Congress with more than 10,000 e-mail messages and letters. At the same time, labor unions are sponsoring demonstrations, conferences and meetings in 99 cities this month to push for the legislation. The two sides have also squared off with newspaper advertisements.þþ“The business community thinks the labor movement is at death’s door, and they want to make sure they keep this bill from passing,” said Charles Craver, a professor of labor law at George Washington University. “If it passes, it will give labor a big boost.”þþLabor unions represent only 7.4 percent of the nation’s private-sector workers, down from 35 percent in the 1950s. That helps explain why labor’s campaign for the bill, the Employee Free Choice Act, represents its biggest legislative push in 30 years.þþLegislative aides say they expect the bill to be approved next Thursday in the House, where it has 234 sponsors, including seven Republicans.þþBusiness lobbyists voice confidence that they can block the bill in the Senate, where opponents say a filibuster is likely. Vice President Dick Cheney said last week that President Bush would veto the bill.þþ“It’s a huge issue,” said Randel Johnson, vice president for labor policy at the United States Chamber of Commerce. “We’ve targeted this as our No. 1 or No. 2 priority to defeat.”þþThe bill would give employees at a workplace the right to unionize as soon as a majority sign cards saying they want a union, a process known as a card check or majority signup. Under current law, employers can insist on a secret-ballot election to determine whether a majority of employees favors a union.þþLast summer Unite Here, the union representing apparel, hotel and laundry workers, used a card check to organize 300 housekeepers and other workers at the Marriott Downtown Los Angeles. Unite Here’s previous efforts to organize the hotel’s workers through a secret-ballot election faltered in the late 1980s and in the 1990s in the face of an aggressive management campaign. þþ“It didn’t take very long for us to get 70 percent of the workers to sign cards saying they wanted a union,” said Bruce Raynor, Unite Here’s president. þþWith card checks, unions can often win unionization drives in two to four weeks.þþWith secret-ballot elections, unionization efforts can drag on for months, often delayed by litigation. Unions also say that many corporations break the law during election campaigns by firing, intimidating and spying on union supporters.þþ“Secret-ballot elections often occur in an environment that is so poisoned by the anti-union campaign that they can’t possibly be considered a free choice,” said Bill Samuel, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s legislative director. þþMr. Samuel pointed to a National Labor Relations Board report that 31,358 workers received back pay in 2005 after their employers were accused of illegally retaliating against them for supporting a union.þþBusiness lobbyists say the Employee Free Choice Act is antidemocratic and would deprive workers of their right to a secret ballot. They say union organizers will bully workers into signing pro-union cards.þþ“This debate is not about free choice,” said Jason Straczewski, director of human resources policy for the National Association of Manufacturers. “It’s about a quick fix for union membership on the decline.” þþBusiness groups argue that if secret-ballot elections are good enough for American voters, they should be good enough for union members.þþJoseph A. McInerney, chief executive of the American Hotel and Lodging Association, said, “It’s simply un-American.”þþLabor Secretary Elaine L. Chao has also denounced the bill, saying, “A worker’s right to a secret ballot election is an intrinsic right in our democracy that should not be legislated away at the behest of special interest groups.”þþMary Beth Maxwell, executive director of American Rights at Work, a pro-union group, said it was surprising that corporations were defending workers’ rights. “The notion that corporate lobbying coalitions and front groups are the new champions of workers’ rights and democracy is laughable,” Ms. Maxwell said.þþ
Source: NY Times
