While labor and its congressional allies energetically push legislation for card-check recognition of unions to represent workers, a group of Radical Right congressional Republicans is pushing for a card-check ban.
In addition, the George W. Bush-appointed GOP majority on the National Labor Relations Board is threatening to reverse past NLRB support for card-check as an option to the contested election process.
Debate over card-check symbolizes the sharp divisions in Washington over the role and future of labor.
The battle pits two pieces of legislation: H.R. 4343, which its author, Rep. Charlie Norwood, R-Ga., named ?The Secret Ballot Protection Act,? versus ?The Employee Free Choice Act? (H.R. 3619 and S. 1925), authored by Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.
The Employee Free Choice Act is based on legislation originally written by the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn. It would establish card-check as the prime alternative to the NLRB?s slow pro-business election process. It says if a union gets a majority of workers to sign union authorization cards, the employer must automatically recognize that the union represents the workers.
Miller?s bill also would enact other labor law reforms, including outlawing captive-audience meetings, imposing heavy fines on labor law-breakers and mandating first-contract arbitration if the two sides can?t reach agreement.
Norwood?s bill would literally outlaw card-check. He says so, bluntly. That would leave NLRB-supervised elections as the only route to union victory at worksites.
Miller has more than 200 representatives as co-sponsors of the pro-card-check bill ? including half a dozen Republicans and all four of Minnesota?s DFL U.S. House members. Kennedy has signed on more than 30 senators.
Norwood?s bill has 45 House Republicans as co-sponsors ? including Rep. John Kline, R-Minn. (See related story) The Senate version of Norwood?s bill (S. 2637) has only one sponsor, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
?There?s simply no good reason why workers should have their right to a fair and secret ballot election replaced with a practice that brings threats, arm-twisting, intimidation, and shakedowns from big union bosses,? Norwood charged.
At an April hearing, Nancy Schiffer, the AFL-CIO?s associate general counsel, countered that ?in an NLRB election, which can often take several months or more, the employer is free to wage a campaign where employees are intimidated, threatened, spied upon, harassed, and?in a quarter of all cases?fired, to suppress the formation of a union.
?The Employee Free Choice Act will enable workers to form unions without going through the meat-grinder of an NLRB election campaign, once a majority of workers sign authorizations demonstrating their desire to form a union,? Schiffer added.
For more information:
Visit the AFL-CIO website, www.aflcio.org (then follow the link for ?Employee Free Choice Act.?)
and the website, www.americanrightsatwork (then follow links for ?Take Action? and then ?Employee Free Choice Act.
Mark Gruenberg writes for Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.
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While labor and its congressional allies energetically push legislation for card-check recognition of unions to represent workers, a group of Radical Right congressional Republicans is pushing for a card-check ban.
In addition, the George W. Bush-appointed GOP majority on the National Labor Relations Board is threatening to reverse past NLRB support for card-check as an option to the contested election process.
Debate over card-check symbolizes the sharp divisions in Washington over the role and future of labor.
The battle pits two pieces of legislation: H.R. 4343, which its author, Rep. Charlie Norwood, R-Ga., named ?The Secret Ballot Protection Act,? versus ?The Employee Free Choice Act? (H.R. 3619 and S. 1925), authored by Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.
The Employee Free Choice Act is based on legislation originally written by the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn. It would establish card-check as the prime alternative to the NLRB?s slow pro-business election process. It says if a union gets a majority of workers to sign union authorization cards, the employer must automatically recognize that the union represents the workers.
Miller?s bill also would enact other labor law reforms, including outlawing captive-audience meetings, imposing heavy fines on labor law-breakers and mandating first-contract arbitration if the two sides can?t reach agreement.
Norwood?s bill would literally outlaw card-check. He says so, bluntly. That would leave NLRB-supervised elections as the only route to union victory at worksites.
Miller has more than 200 representatives as co-sponsors of the pro-card-check bill ? including half a dozen Republicans and all four of Minnesota?s DFL U.S. House members. Kennedy has signed on more than 30 senators.
Norwood?s bill has 45 House Republicans as co-sponsors ? including Rep. John Kline, R-Minn. (See related story) The Senate version of Norwood?s bill (S. 2637) has only one sponsor, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
?There?s simply no good reason why workers should have their right to a fair and secret ballot election replaced with a practice that brings threats, arm-twisting, intimidation, and shakedowns from big union bosses,? Norwood charged.
At an April hearing, Nancy Schiffer, the AFL-CIO?s associate general counsel, countered that ?in an NLRB election, which can often take several months or more, the employer is free to wage a campaign where employees are intimidated, threatened, spied upon, harassed, and?in a quarter of all cases?fired, to suppress the formation of a union.
?The Employee Free Choice Act will enable workers to form unions without going through the meat-grinder of an NLRB election campaign, once a majority of workers sign authorizations demonstrating their desire to form a union,? Schiffer added.
For more information:
Visit the AFL-CIO website, www.aflcio.org (then follow the link for ?Employee Free Choice Act.?)
and the website, www.americanrightsatwork (then follow links for ?Take Action? and then ?Employee Free Choice Act.
Mark Gruenberg writes for Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.