Category: Labor

Educating on Employee Free Choice, Part 32

Harold Meyerson of the Washington Post explains the importance of first contract arbitration in the Employee Free Choice Act. First contract arbitration is the second main plank of Employee Free Choice.

But the kind of democratic choice that business favors is choice without consequence — a position made clear by its opposition to the other key component of EFCA: binding arbitration between company and union if they’ve been unable to agree on a contract within 120 days of a union winning the election. A study of first-contract negotiations by John-Paul Ferguson and Thomas A. Kochan of MIT’s Sloan School of Management makes clear why such arbitration is needed. After surveying 22,000 unionization campaigns between 1999 and 2004, the authors found that even after a majority of workers voted for a union, they actually reached a contractual agreement with management (which is currently under no legal obligation to come to an agreement) only 56 percent of the time.

Heads, management wins. Tails, the employees lose.

It’s ironic that businesses rely on arbitration all the time as a means of resolving differences; in this regard, arbitration is a tool for business success. Yet when it comes to giving workers recourse to have arbitration as a means of getting their first contract between the newly-formed union and their employer, big business is suddenly opposed to arbitration. Currently businesses stall by negotiating in bad faith, as they know that if a contract is signed in the first year, they can run a campaign to decertify the union. It’s a crime that even when workers fight and organize and choose to join together in a union, employers still have the ability to effectively ignore the results.

Green Union Pressure Politics

This strikes me as the straightforward solution to the dilly-dallying of conservative Arkansas senators Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor on issues affecting working Americans. Arkansas has a  uniquely strong Green Party, bred as a byproduct of the Republican and Democratic Party machines divvying up political districts to avoid competitive elections. While there may not be a deep bench for labor to look to in Arkansas to primary Lincoln or Pryor, there is the Green Party.

Blanche Lincoln is up for reelection in 2010 and has been one of the most problematic senators in the Democratic caucus when it comes to the Employee Free Choice Act. To say that she is owned, in part or in full, by Wal-Mart would begin to get at the problems that arise when working Americans and Arkansans lobby her to support Free Choice. However there is little avenue for pressuring Senate Democrats, other than at the ballot box. While labor is having an easy time of exerting leftward pressure on Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania because of the deep pro-labor, liberal Democratic bench, there isn’t a similarly large bench in Arkansas. As a result, if labor is going to try to move Blanche Lincoln back to the side of working Americans by exerting political pressure, it will have to be by threatening to — and if necessary carrying out the threat to — put major resources by a Green Party candidate to run for Senate in the general election against Blanche Lincoln.

Lincoln is the archetype of how the labor movement has been undercut by Senate Democrats this year. If pols like Lincoln know that they will not face any consequences when they stab working Americans in the back, they will never change their behavior. Since Dems like Lincoln only understand threats to their tenure in office, the natural course for pressure for unions to pursue is a political challenge. In the case of Arkansas, it seems that the Green Party would offer the best possible opportunity to run a meaningful challenge to Lincoln on behalf of working Americans.

Educating on Employee Free Choice, Part 29

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is running an op-ed today making the persuasive case that workers should have just as much right as Senator Arlen Specter when it comes to choosing their affiliations. William George and Jack Shea, two Pennsylvania labor leaders, write:

Last week we witnessed an amazing example of American democracy in action. Simply by exercising his freedom of association, Sen. Arlen Specter changed his political party affiliation and joined the Democratic Party. Mr. Specter took advantage of the rights guaranteed by the Constitution. And, in a classic moment of pure irony, in the same speech announcing his decision to switch parties, he reiterated his opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act.

The Employee Free Choice Act guarantees workers the right to join a union simply by indicating that they want to be part of one, the same way Mr. Specter joined the Democratic Party. This is America. It should not take a new law to guarantee workers the right to freely associate in a labor union, but too often workers are denied the basic rights most Americans take for granted.

…

Mr. Specter has demonstrated time and time again he is capable of bold action. When he withdrew his support from the Employee Free Choice Act in March, he left the door open to supporting labor law reform. We invite him to boldly walk back through that door and join like-minded senators in his new political party and take part in fixing America’s broken labor laws.

This is a powerful argument and one that I expect workers in Pennsylvania to continue to use to move Specter back to supporting the Employee Free Choice Act (a bill he’s previously voted in favor of).

No Longer Operative

Apparently this is no longer operative:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Friday that Sen. Arlen Specter’s (R-Pa.) decision to reject “card-check” legislation has ended any chance of a party switch.

Reid as well as Vice President Biden, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) and Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) have tried recently to persuade Specter to leave the GOP.
…

But Specter smashed those hopes by declaring this week that he would vote against any effort to quash a filibuster of the Employee Free Choice Act, also known as the card-check bill.

“Yes, I’ve talked to him,” Reid told reporters Friday of his efforts to convince Specter to leave the Republican Party.

“But he, in coming out against card-check, stopped everyone from being able to help him.”

Per usual, I would love to get a seat at Harry Reid’s poker game.

Shafting Labor

Thomas Frank has an indispensable piece in the Wall Street Journal on the Democratic Party’s propensity to rely on labor votes and labor grassroots electoral efforts to win, then stab the labor movement in the back when it comes to actually passing legislation that helps America’s workers (while siding with big business interests and their heavily moneyed lobbying efforts). Frank notes that a number of the key lobbying shops for Wal-Mart are Democratic and progressive branded, a sign that the white collar parts of the Democratic elites are simply either indifferent to the plight of working Americans or fundamentally opposed to progressivism when it is placed against a hefty paycheck from a big business client.

Frank doesn’t really touch on the political dynamics that have emerged within the Democratic Party on the Employee Free Choice Act as addressed by Andy Stern of the Service Employees International Union in a Washington Post editorial board meeting earlier this week.  While Frank is right that Democratic consultants helping business in their fight against America’s workers is deeply problematic, the elephant in the room that Stern addressed is that labor has been left on its own in this fight, without the White House whipping on the Hill to pass Employee Free Choice. The question naturally arises, is there a substantive difference between Democratic consultants helping the Wal-Marts of the world stop Employee Free Choice Act and the administration backing off campaign promises to pass this critical piece of legislation that will grow the economy and rebuild the middle class?

It’s also worth noting that the problem of getting Democrats to support Employee Free Choice outside of the political campaign season does not start and end with the White House. Unions have been ineffective at getting key swing votes — conservative Democrats and moderate Republicans — who supported Free Choice in the past to stay with us. This gets back to problem Frank identified in the beginning, namely that “Democrats torpedo the most trustworthy member of their coalition,” out of a lack of genuine support, understanding, or influence by corporate money. This whole situation is frustrating beyond belief, to say the least.

Disclosure: While I’m proud to work for the Service Employees International Union, this post was written without their knowledge and does not represent anyone’s views but my own.

Educating on Employee Free Choice, Part 28

IBEW Local 1597 member Mike Semm has an op-ed in the Grand Island Tribune about the need for the Employee Free Choice Act to be passed during these tough economic times. He begins by framing the economic crisis we’re in:

We know the economy has been broken since long before the latest financial tsunami.

Just look at the numbers – worker productivity soared over the last twenty-five years, leading to record profits.  And yet, wages have stayed flat.  Working people are struggling to stay afloat as health care costs spiral out of control.  Foreclosures are at an all time high.  Millions of jobs are gone and millions more are at stake.

So where did all those profits go?  You guessed it!  The wealth that we created, our life savings and our pensions, were unfairly used to fund the fairy tale financial schemes that were concocted on Wall Street.  As it turns out, you can’t really spin straw into gold.

Leading economists agree that we’re living in the worst economic crisis – and the greatest economic inequality – since the Great Depression.  Last year, the average CEO made in one workday what the average worker made in a year.

And goes on to show Employee Free Choice as key to the solution of this economic disparity.

A new Gallup poll shows that a solid majority of Americans support legislation that would make it easier for workers to form unions and negotiate for better health care, wages and job security.  Millions of Americans want to be able to form and join unions, but they shouldn’t have to risk their livelihoods in the process.

That’s why Congress recently introduced the Employee Free Choice Act – a common sense piece of legislation that will let workers decide how they want to form a union.  Workers would be able to choose between the two current methods of forming a union – either with an election or by gathering a majority of signed authorization cards.  The only difference
is that today, the boss gets to make that choice for you.

Instead of going through a typically long and costly ordeal, the Employee Free Choice Act will create a level playing field for workers and management to come to the table and negotiate a fair contract.

To be sure, some corporations would rather keep things the way they are.  A coalition of powerful corporate interests – including several bailout recipients – has amassed millions of dollars to try to defeat this critical legislation through several front groups.

Great piece, Mike! Thanks for making the case for Free Choice for your fellow workers.

Educating on Employee Free Choice, Part 27

Back in February, Senator John Kerry had a great op-ed in The Herald News on how the Employee Free Choice Act will be a boon for small businesses around the country. Today small business owner Terri Monley has an op-ed in the Denver Post making the case for Employee Free Choice as a tool for rebuilding the economy. Monley writes:

Small Business Administration data show that small businesses are less likely to go bankrupt in states with higher unionization, and that’s a big reason why I support the Employee Free Choice Act. It’s a simple formula for me and my business: When more workers have better jobs with higher wages, then more money is going into the local economy. That’s more money that will go to my business, and more money that I will then spend with other small businesses in Colorado.

The middle class is disappearing in this country as top executives keep most of the money for themselves. CEOs are making 344 times more than the average worker. In the United States, productivity is up nearly 20 percent between 2000 and 2006, profits have doubled, and yet most workers have not been able to share in that prosperity. It doesn’t do me or my business any good for some executive at AIG to make another $1 million. But when average workers are doing better, then they are going to spend that money locally. That’s how we improve our economy.

…

Under the Employee Free Choice Act, federal labor law exemptions for many small businesses will not change. But if more workers in the community are in unions, those are workers who are in better jobs. They’re also customers who will be spending more in their local economies, where we need help the most.

Monley’s piece is a good reminder that while Big Business is deploying a dozen anti-American worker outfits to scare people about the Employee Free Choice Act, the people who are paying attention know this is about the sort of economy we’re building in America. It’s a question of whether all the power should be in the hands of the CEOs at big corporations or if workers and small businesses should have the ability and opportunity to succeed too. Fundamentally this is a question of who the rules that govern the economy should work for: the powerful executives or the workers who drive the American economic engine?