Right to Work Blog

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) says they are “making progress” in their negotiations over the Card Check Forced Unionism bill. We suspect workers who don’t want to be forced into a union are not at the bargaining table.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) is threatening to move the Card Check Forced Unionism bill to the Senate floor as introduced unless a some other forced unionism scheme is worked out.  Frankly, an up-or-down vote on the Harkin bill would be a great opportunity for workers to see what Senators truly believe in forced unionism.  Senators would not have any fig leaf to hide behind.

Sens. Arlen Specter (D-PA), Jim Webb (D-VA), Mark Pryor (D-AK) and Diane Feinstein (D-CA) are participating in preliminary talks to find a “compromise.”  Seems like a great list of Senators to contact to voice your objections to any and all versions of the Card Check Forced Unionism bill.  Add Senators Warner (VA), Landrieu (LA), Lincoln-Lambert (AK), Snowe (ME), Collins (ME)  Nelson (NE), Conrad (ND), Johnson (SD), Dorgan (ND) and Reid (NV) to that list as well.  Senators can be reached by calling the Senate Switchboard at 202-224-3121.

Sen. Ben Nelson seems to get the Card Check quandary:

You  might think that statement would come from a Republican, but it’s actually from a Democrat.

Reports that there might be a deal near on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), or “card check,” as critics and now some proponents call it, appear to be vastly overwritten.

Sen Tom Harkin, D-IA, a lead negotiator, is in talks with the Senate’s newest Democrat, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, but there are MANY more pieces to this complicated puzzle, namely a number of other Dems who do not want this.  Harkin and Specter have known each other for decades, so it is natural they would work together, but Harkin has a heavy lift to get a deal out of this Senate.

Sen Ben Nelson, D-NE, told me he does not see a deal happening this year at all. He sees no way to put a compromise together that’s pallatable.

“You take away the arbitration issue, and you still have the ‘card check’, so that doesn’t work. You take away the ‘card check’ and you still have the arbitration problem. And if both go away, you’re left with nothing. It’s a fool’s errand to do this. I just don’t see an agreement happening,” Nelson said.

Harkin must please a number of skeptical Dem colleagues in the Senate, among them, Dianne Feinstein (CA), Jim Webb (VA), Blanche Lincoln (AR), Mark Warner (VA), and Mike Bennet (CO).

One of them, who asked to remain anonymous because of the intense lobbying campaign underway by big Labor, tells Fox, “You cannot find a way to make this work. I’ve heard all the arguments, and I just don’t see it.”

Still, Harkin said he’s trying. He has Labor and a number of business concerns in the loop and is working hard to find a compromise.

However, a senior Senate Dem Appropriations Cmte aide tells Fox, “This isn’t happening anytime soon, if it even happens.”  And this aide works for a Dem who supports EFCA.

“Card Check” is a top priority for labor unions this year. It is a bill that would make it easire for workplaces to unionize.  Under the legislation, workers would sign cards rather than by voting in secret ballot elections to start a union.  The provision also calls for mandatory arbitration to set the terms of the first contract if companies and unions can’t agree within 120 days.

The whole meaning of this confusing talk is clear!  Keep the pressure on these Senators.  It is the only thing that is holding this forced unionism monster down at this point.

Roll Call (subscription required) is reporting that Big Labor lover Sen. Tom Harkin is seeking the votes of “moderate” Republican Senators for a “compromise” version of the Card Check Forced Unionism Bill. Remember, there is nothing “moderate” about forcing workers into unions, and there is no room for compromise on this point:

With Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) refusing to back a controversial union organizing bill, Senate Democrats have tapped Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) to begin preliminary discussions with a handful of moderate Republicans to try to come up with a new plan for reforming the nation’s labor laws.

Democratic aides said Harkin’s outreach to the GOP is in the early stages and, because of that, declined to identify which Republicans he is courting.

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), speaking Friday at a breakfast meeting sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, hinted that Democrats weren’t giving up entirely on the “card check” legislation.

“With Specter backing out on this … I know there are conversations going on with other Republicans” to find a compromise, Reid said.

The Majority Leader also used the forum to harshly criticized opponents of the bill, noting that labor unions represent only 6 percent of the work force, down from a high of 25 percent several decades ago. “I think the business community is flogging a horse that doesn’t deserve it,” he said.

Democratic aides said that should a compromise be reached, it will likely end up somewhere between the card check bill as it’s currently written and an alternative union organizing proposal floated by Starbucks Corp., Costco Wholesale Corp. and Whole Foods Market Inc. That plan would retain the use of secret ballots when workers decide to unionize and would not include binding arbitration provisions. It would, however, include a number of other provisions, including allowing unions access to employees during off-work hours and requiring a fixed date for elections.

The alternative has been publicly criticized by Harkin and other pro-labor Democrats as being unacceptable. But privately Democrats acknowledged it was the first sign of movement from the business community that a compromise may be possible.

Democrats predicted they would likely use the existing card check legislation as the underlying bill, with any major changes being made through amendments on the floor.

Harkin, the lead sponsor of the card check bill, also known as the Employee Free Choice Act, said that he had expected amendments would be made and that Specter’s decision to drop his support for the bill would not kill it out right.

“We always expected the bill would be amended, but that does not change the fact that labor reform is needed, as even Senator Specter pointed out. There is no question that the bill will be debated and voted on because workers deserve a share of this recovery. Right now, we are looking for options that all stakeholders can agree to as a way forward to get this bill passed in both the Senate and the House,” Harkin said in a statement Friday.

Harkin is expected to begin reaching out to business interests in the coming weeks, and aides predicted work will likely ramp up during the upcoming recess.

Iowa House Speaker Pat Murphy has gone the extra mile to reward the union bosses with taxpayer largess. With his efforts to enact a state prevailing wage law stalled by a single vote, Murphy has done the extraordinary — he has held the vote open for over one day in order to pressure one member of the House to join with him and the union bosses. Murphy and his Big Labor allies have been beneficiaries of the union bosses political giving.

Matt Strawn, the Chairman of the Iowa Republican Party said:

“While Speaker Murphy’s defiance might please his big labor contributors–it is standing in the way of important efforts to help create jobs for both union members and nonunion members in Iowa and get needed resources to flood victims.

“Tens of thousands of Iowans are looking for legislative solutions that will help stimulate the economy and create new jobs. Thousands of others have been waiting for our State to take action to provide disaster relief so they can rebuild their lives. Unfortunately, Speaker Murphy has decided to put the demands of the big labor bosses who fund his campaigns ahead of the needs of Iowans.”

Despite heavy lifting by the Iowa Governor and House Speaker Pay Murphy, who used extraordinary efforts to pass a state “prevailing wage law,” Iowa union bosses suffered a legislative setback when the bill failed to pass the House by a 49-49 vote. Unfortunately, “Murphy told reporters, the bill’s defeat does not derail the bill permanently, nor does it mean Democrats will table three other labor-related bills that unions hope pass the legislature in 2009.” They include an attempt to repeal the 60-plus year old Right to Work Law that guarantees an individual’s right not to join or pay fees to a labor union as a condition of getting or keeping a job. More to come….

With Iowa’s Right to Work Law targeted for repeal by the union bosses, citizens and members of the state legislature are rising up to defend workers’ choice.

Among them is State Sen. Pat Ward.

Writing forcefully in the Des Moines Register, Ward points out that “Iowa is on a path of self destruction as far as good jobs are concerned. We’re in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and rather than doing everything within our power to keep jobs here in Iowa, we seem determined to run them away.”

Ward highlights a string of Big Labor-backed proposals that are being considered by the state legislature including repeal of Right to Work, expanding the scope and power of government employee unions to collectively bargain for more taxpayer money, and enactment of a state prevailing wage law that would drive up the price of government infrastructure projects.

As Sen. Ward writes, “if these bills become law, Iowa might as well hang a ‘closed’ for business sign out for the world to see.”

Despite Iowa’s strong history of support for workers’ choice, Big Labor is once again pushing a new state law that would allow unions to charge fees to nonunion workers. The Des Moines Register notes that “the measure represents a major expansion of a bill that failed two years ago despite support from Gov. Chet Culver, a Democrat.”

Big Labor likes to call the measure the “Fair Share” Bill, but workers know it’s no such thing. The bill would force nonunion members to subsidize the outrageous spending habits of the union bosses.

With a larger Democrat majority in the state legislature, supporters of Right to Work in the Hawkeye State will have their hands full defending workers’ right to choose. Despite the threat, House Republican Leader Kraig Paulsen announced his strong opposition of weakening Iowa’s Right to Work Law during the opening ceremonies of the 83rd General Assembly.

In the movie Poltergiest II: The Other Side, a little girl is able to see ghosts and announces to her parents, “they’re back,” before the terror begins. Something similar is happening in Iowa, as Big Labor leaders and their minions in the state legislature are preparing to move legislation to weaken the state’s Right to Work Law.

The Des Moines Register notes that:

Unions are the No. 1 financial backers for Iowa Democrats, and are sure to push leaders for what they want. . . .

The teachers union, for example, wants adequate financial support for public schools and community colleges, expansion of the scope of bargaining to let teachers negotiate for the same issues as private sector workers, and repeal of the right-to-work law.

That union, the Iowa State Education Association, has given Democrats more than $250,000 this year – and more than $240,000 of that went directly to the campaign accounts of [Mike] Gronstal and his counterpart in the Iowa House, Kevin McCarthy. Building and construction trade unions, meanwhile, are eager for a prevailing wage law, which would boost workers’ pay.

But the paper also notes that the National Right to Work Committee is on the ground trying to save the day:

The National Right to Work Committee has already started trying to shore up conservative Democratic lawmakers who in the past found some union proposals distasteful.