Are We Going to Let Obama Back Away From the Employee Free Choice Act?
Labor journalist and lawyer, Steve Early reports on COUNTERPUNCH today that there are already signs that the nascent Obama adminstration is backing away from a key pledge to all the union members and supporters who got out there and busted their butts to get him elected (for the full text of the article see http://www.counterpunch.org/early12082008.html).
According to Early:
While running for office, Obama said he strongly backed the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), a long overdue labor law reform measure that should be part of his promised economic stimulus plan. However, when Obama introduced his top economic advisors on Nov. 25 and talked about steps to “jolt” the economy in January, EFCA was not part of the package. More disturbingly, his new chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, declined to say whether the White House would support EFCA when he was questioned about it at a Wall Street Journal-sponsored “CEO Forum” earlier in November.
Early also cites Senator Blanche Lincoln, previously counted as a supporter of EFCA, as beginning to waffle almost as if on cue from Emanuel. Again according to Early, Lincoln told the Arkansas Times on December 4 that she was "undecided" on EFCA and "believed the nation has more important issues to deal with." Come again? As Jonathan Tasini just pointed out on CNBC one of the main things we should be doing to revive the economy is to revive people's paychecks. And the increased union organizing that is likely to come from the passage of the EFCA would be a great way to get that ball rolling.
It's time for the labor movement and its supporters to send an unequivocal message to both the president-elect and congressional Democrats: Either fight for and pass EFCA in the the first hundred days of the new administration or risk losing our support in the coming fights in 2010 and 2012 to retain your own positions!
Al Ronzoni
Comments
Card Check
Can someone explain to me my secret ballots are bad?? How can this be called, "Employee Free Choice Act" if employees cannot vote in secret?
Dr. M
Work place elections are not just like political ones
I highly recommend that you visit the AFL-CIO's website where you can get the exact text of the bill (which includes more than just the card check provision) along with other information including congressional testimony from an former employee of Blue Diamond (Almond) Growers who recounted how the co. used the current system to fire him and several co-workers soon after they announced their intentions to organize. Blue Diamond then went straight to the NLRB and called for an election while at the same time bombarding its workers with anti-union propaganda and threatening to close the plant.
I think the assumption you are making is that an election being held in a work environment, where the employer has far greater weight and control over the system, is the same as an election being held for a government office where they have none except perhaps indirectly i.e if you vote for candidate B, we may have to move the plant to Vietnam etc.
Al