W Post: Battle Intensifies Over Bill to Expedite Union Organizing

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/18/AR2008101802370_pf.html

By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 18, 2008; 10:40 PM

Organized labor and business groups are facing off in an increasingly intense battle over legislation that would make it easier to organize unions, as labor seeks to bolster its dwindling ranks and propel its agenda for working Americans.

The Employee Free Choice Act -- which would require employers to recognize unions once a majority of workers sign cards of support -- would be perhaps the most significant change in federal labor law in six decades. Currently, employers can demand that workers hold secret-ballot elections on whether to organize; labor organizers say that method allows companies to pressure workers through a formal campaign.

The union proposal is strongly endorsed by Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and a bevy of congressional Democrats, who see it as a way to increase the clout of workers who have been losing economic ground over the past three decades. The effort is fueled by an estimated $300 million political war chest and a massive grass-roots mobilization effort.

Thea M. Lee, policy director of the AFL-CIO, said the proposed legislation would return some leverage to workers.

"The destruction of unions and the attack on unions have been a major contributor to the growing income inequality in the country and erosion of the middle class," Lee said. "We look at the financial crisis, and it certainly seems to us that you can't build a thriving consumer economy on debt and low wages."

Fierce opposition to the measure has emerged from a coalition of business groups, which describe the proposed legislation as a power grab by struggling unions, whose membership has dropped from 20 percent of all workers to 12 percent in the past 25 years. The groups also say the measure would result in workers being pressured into joining unions.

FULL story at link.

[billyoc]

1. Our list of priorities for the upcoming legistlative session of the new 111th Congress

has ONE item on it.

EFCA.

That's it, one item. Every effort will be brought to bear on the Obama administration to get it passed immediately.

[pleah]

2. K&R